"Ned Simmons" wrote in message
...
In article , says...
"jim rozen" wrote in message
...
In article , Ed Huntress says...

Until HSS steel was developed, high-carbon steel (Rc 60 - 65) was
used
for
cutting tools. It works OK. You just have to keep speeds 'way down so
you
don't wreck the hardness. It doesn't wear as well as HSS, either. So,
you
just change or sharpen tools more often.

What about harold's favorite, Stellite? That was around well
before HSS was developed, right? Granted you could not just
cook some up on the kitchen stove...

Assuming you could find the materials and had a way to measure them
(alloys
are pretty strict for the Stellites), you'd need the kitchen stove from
Hell
to cook it up. g

Which brings up a problem at least as serious as obtaining the raw
materials to make HSS -- the energy required to do metallurgy with
refractory metals in a small isolated place like Nantucket. I'm sure
there'd be higher priority uses for the limited energy available than
making modern metalworking tools.

Driftwood charcoal probably isn't specified in the metallurgy manuals. g

Actually, I haven't been there for many years, but I remember seeing
orchards there. Maybe applewood charcoal is a little more consistent.

Given the difficulties of coming up with anything better, and the relative
ease of carburizing common grades of plain, low-carbon steel, making plain
carburized steel for tools looks like the best solution by far. The
limitation is that, compared to the 1,000F or so maximum operating
temperature of HSS, you have to keep maximum temperature at the cutting edge
to something on the order of 350 or 400F.

--
Ed Huntress