Saw steel suppliers for brass back saw makers

For those interested I just did a search back through the posts and another quick look on the web. The stuff Ray gave me is 0.20. inch High Carbon 1095 hardened and tempered spring steel.
There might be other suppliers, and even a local supplier, please feel free to add any more information to this thread....

This company looks the best option.
Their 0.020" blue spring steel (Model #505-3825) 25 x 6 inch @US$28.97 + shipping...is here...

http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INSRIT?PMAKA=505-3825

and their instructions for international clients is here...
http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INPAGE?P...ernational.htm
....this company has 0.025", and 0.032" also

another...
http://www.mcmaster.com/
search for item 9075K242

another...
http://www.meadmetals.com/temperedspringsteel.htm

another...
http://www.victornet.com/cgi-bin/vic...%3A1523%2C1524

Regards,
Peter

Global Metals sell various grades of spring steel in our thickness range. They have outlets in most states.

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Originally Posted by Woodwould

Global Metals sell various grades of spring steel in our thickness range. They have outlets in most states.

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Rang their head office on the Gold Coast today. Even though their website says they have 1095 ,It is not stocked on gold Coast and they transferred me to Brisbane office. Same answer but they did refer me onto another possible supplier in Brisbane Australasian Springs who told me they do not have it that thin.

She explained how difficulty sheet steel in odd sizes is very difficult to get as is all steel purchases since BHP sold their steel outlet and they restockers need to put in an order of about 8 tonnes to get it from main supplier.

Hence, a lot of small specialty outlets and engineering shops have to source from outside Australia mainly China because they have been buy buying up all the old scrap iron they can get their hands on.

From my limited inquiries and reading the info on this hand tools forums I am inclined to agree.

Will follow up some more leads this week.

I just went through the exercise of ordering some sheets from the Victornet site (the bottom one in Lightwood's list). It all went pretty smoothly, but the cost of packing & posting is horrendous at $56.00US for two 24" x 6" sheets! :o:o That will work out to around $20 Au for a typical blade, so still not too bad a deal. I could have had them here in a week if I'd been prepared to pay more than twice the above to UPS, but opted for the slower postal service & a 6 week wait.......

I reckon it would probably cost very little more to get 4 or 6 sheets posted, so a if few people living reasonably close to each other were to club together, maybe you could land yourself a sheet each for $35 or so??

Cheers,

A quick and simple way to get 0.030" is the standard blue steel floor scrapers available at Bunnings, $14 from memory for a 6 x 14" blade. For those just starting out in saw making this could be an easy entre into the saw making game.

Cheers

Have you any idea what the material in a floor scraper is, or its temper? It sounds interesting though.

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Originally Posted by Woodwould

Have you any idea what the material in a floor scraper is, or its temper? It sounds interesting though.

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It's spring steel and I measured it at work to be RC 53. I used it to make this tenon saw. I often buy up steel tools from places like bunnings and take them to work and measure their hardness. This leaves a pin prick indentation in an unobtrusive part of the steel. If they are what I'm after I keep them otherwise I return them.

I should have known you'd have a full answer for me. I was going to suggest bunging the steel in an Indentec tester, but you're way ahead of me.

Bob - Dunno how I missed that saw of yours first time round - top job! Now your comment re sheoak handles makes sense!

Must go & investigate Bunnies over here & see if they have srapers too. At .030" they're half as thick again as the stock RayG put me onto, so perhaps more appropriate for a larger tenon saw than the smaller fry I've just done. Price is right, though, & if the Rockwell hardness is consistent from batch to batch, perfect for the purpose, as you say. The stock we used is reputedly R48-51, so a little softer (or quite a bit softer? It is a logarithmic scale after all - what do you reckon?). It was certainly tough to cut with a hacksaw blade, & two 250mm cuts totally destroyed a new blade (I've since bought a few 1mm cutoff blades for the A.G). It filed very nicely when sharpening, but no different from a couple of other saws I own, one of which is supposed to be super-duper 'saw-steel'. I'll be most interested to see how it handles the Ironbark & Bluegum I intend to feed to it, shortly.

WRT the blueing, I was going to sand it off, but was surprised at how well it stood up while I was mucking about fitting the blade to the back, etc., so decided to leave it alone for now. I like it, in fact - it's a point of difference over factory-nade jobs & the blueing will give a bit of rust resistance until it wears off. When it starts to look a bit mangy I will polish it then.
Cheers,

I too have just read your old post BobL. As you say an excellent test piece to practice your skills before messing up steel from the bulk order, and besides it might end up being a good saw. Well done and thanks for posting.

While placing the order for the split nuts with Mike Wenzloff, he indicated he might be able to help with saw plate, he gets bright polished 20 thou 1095 coils 3" wide 200 ft long and cost per foot would work out to less than $A2.00. (he said less than $US1.00 per ft, but I am being a bit conservative)

As to whether this is a viable option depends on postage cost, I am thinking of doing
a trial purchase to see how it works out, before perhaps a group purchase.


Regards
Ray

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Originally Posted by IanW

...WRT the blueing, I was going to sand it off, but was surprised at how well it stood up while I was mucking about fitting the blade to the back, etc., so decided to leave it alone for now. I like it, in fact - it's a point of difference over factory-nade jobs & the blueing will give a bit of rust resistance until it wears off. When it starts to look a bit mangy I will polish it then.
Cheers,

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When one desires to remove the bluing, acid removes it handily. Citric acid works, but Phosphoric is much faster. I use a phos. acid meant to clean concrete available from home centers. One needs to immediately flush with copius amounts of running hot/warm water and scrub while the water is running with a grey sanding pad to obtain a moderately bright finish.

Some of the steel we purchase only comes blue tempered in the thickness desired. Most of our steel comes ground and polished, which saves the acid step.

Take care, Mike

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Originally Posted by RayG

While placing the order for the split nuts with Mike Wenzloff, he indicated he might be able to help with saw plate, he gets bright polished 20 thou 1095 coils 3" wide 200 ft long and cost per foot would work out to less than .00. (he said less than .00 per ft, but I am being a bit conservative)

As to whether this is a viable option depends on postage cost, I am thinking of doing
a trial purchase to see how it works out, before perhaps a group purchase.


Regards
Ray

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Ray

I think that is a great idea. :2tsup:

DAMHIK but often the length of a parcel is relevant in calculating the postage, so work out a sensible length within the sender's postal pricing parameters. For example, within Australia, a 1 metre package under 20 kg can be sent by Aust post for $13.45. This is a great way to get metal posted to you and most sellers don't know that this is the case (those that I have dealt with now do and offer it to buyers:D).

I reckon you would end up with a sale of at least 30 or 40 m of that stock pretty quickly - in that case, I would see if a Oz distributor could get it and cut it up at decent prices b4 you ask Mike to supply.

In effect, that is what Thumbsucker has shown in relation to tool steel - once we get it into Oz the prices go down remarkably.

Excellent news! I would be keen on a second round of brass/nuts/steel. At this rate it would almost be more cost effective to send out saws instead of Christmas cards this year!

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Originally Posted by RayG

While placing the order for the split nuts with Mike Wenzloff, he indicated he might be able to help with saw plate, he gets bright polished 20 thou 1095 coils 3" wide 200 ft long and cost per foot would work out to less than .00. (he said less than .00 per ft, but I am being a bit conservative)

As to whether this is a viable option depends on postage cost, I am thinking of doing
a trial purchase to see how it works out, before perhaps a group purchase.

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Ray, I would be interested in some of that if it was going!