Mood:
caffeinatedNow Playing: Free Metal! Always a good thing!
I have said it before and I will no doubt say again. Blacksmiths are humanities original and perhaps ultimate recyclers.
Up until very recent history, iron was a very expensive commodity. Given the manual labor to mine it, the very long time spent in transit and even more labor required refining it, all makes for almost any iron or steel object being expensive in the historical context. So it is understandable that worn and used articles made of iron or steel would be reworked into a usable condition or even completely transformed into another artifact.
And today we have speculators on the London Metal Exchange to thank for steel prices, once again going through the roof. Well guess what, blacksmiths are still ready to turn used and worn out steel goods into something new. Rail Road spike knives and pieces made from welded cable spring to mind. (Funny however the county fair didn’t seem to see that point when I entered a welded cable eating utensil set in Recycled Materials. I guess they couldn’t see the original material in them.)
So does all this have a point? Why yes it does. At my work we have a lovely new automated band saw for cutting raw cast aluminum logs into slugs for use in forging our wheels. It also generates the most lovely worn-out and broken band saw blades. And they are letting me take those used blades home for free! Once I cut the teeth off the blade, what I end up with is some great M2 steel shim stock. Now M2 doesn’t work as easy as the 15N20 I normally use. But it still makes a great knife, even if it does give me a workout and a half trying to pound it out.
I’m getting ready to head over to the other side of the factory and load up about two months worth of broken blades in the back of my pick-up truck.
Scott B. Jaqua
Hagerson Forge.
