Does Silver Steel normally look like this?

Hi,

I have just received 2 bars of 1/4 inch square silver steel. The previous silver steel I have bought has been from other suppliers and has been shiny and new looking. this looks more like mild steel. Being inexperienced I thought I would ask you guys whether it is usual for silver steel to look like this before chasing up the supplier.

Chris

Edited By Chris TickTock on 19/03/2020 10:48:26

Typically I've bought it precision ground - hence shiny as you say. Cut a bit off, heat and quench to see if it skates a file.

pgk

Silver steel and gauge plate are usually supplied ‘shiny’ from the grinding process. If this is discoloured because it’s very old stock ,as it may well be,it should be described as such when you buy it. One clue is that silver steel should be accurately sized to half a thou or so,bdms is usually a bit undesize.

Just had it confirmed they are silver steel and apparently old Stubbs Stock...whatever that means.

Chris

Edited By Chris TickTock on 19/03/2020 11:00:38

I bought 1/4" sq. silver steel years ago for lathe tools to make my "Quorn". Looked like BDMS but turned a tough steel casting for the work-head just fine..Incidentally, IMHO, silver steel is much under-rated for making special purpose cutting tools.

You could tape a piece of known silver steel to it, push them onto the grinder and see if the 'sparks' look identical.

Perhaps with a piece of mild steel as well.

Thanks Clive, nice to hear you say that as I hope to make a clock tooth cutter from it.

Chris

Stubs used to make silver steel, seems the trademark is now owned by this company, more background info here.

Thor

Edited By Thor on 19/03/2020 11:14:52

In my experience square silver steel is supplied unground.

Thanks useful links to info on Stubbs

Chris

Stubs were a well-known brand in the good old days. Some believe it's better than modern Silver Steel and pay extra for it. I'm suspicious of Stubbs because the maker was actually called Stubs. Maybe 'Stubbs' is any Silver Steel, just as 'Hoover' became the generic word for any vacuum cleaner.

Never had Silver-steel rod arrive other than brightly polished, but my slab of gauge plate looks just like BMS.

Today's lesson, you can't really tell much by eyeballing metals. The steel-rods out of old printers look just like silver-steel but aren't. Brasses have such a huge range of different properties as to be almost different metals. Spark testing and magnets are clues, but to really know needs a chemical or spectroscopic analysis plus mechanical testing.

If you have silver-steel or gauge plate it will heat harden. Otherwise it won't.

Dave

Just had a look at some of my silver steel stock and they all say "Stubs England".

Brian

A good read and a fwd thinking specialist company, thanx.

You learn something every day. I always thought silver steel was round stock as a matter of course. If I wanted something better than say mild, in square or rectangular I’ve always bought stuff sold GFS, Gauge Plate or 01 steel.

Square silver steel used to be available, but it's pretty rare nowadays. Square gauge plate is still available and is ground on all four sides, unlike rectangular gauge plate. The picture in the first post looks more like key steel to me.

Andrew

Me to.

Tony

I am prepared to accept the suppliers word that the bars are old stock and are silver steel. What interests me is an old post stated that the reason the bars are sold in 13 inch lengths is because the ends are hardened during cutting so they give you an extra 1/2 inch each end?

So on face value if cut by saw sounds improbable but if cut with a torch ??

Anyone got an opinion

Chris

does the end of the bar have a cut or ground finnish?

I would not take the suppliers word for the grade of material as 100%. They are normally pretty good, but not always. It pays to check if you are worried

As Andrew says, square silver steel has been rare for years. I managed to get some1/8" square a considerable number of years ago. It looks like Chris's specimens, it's unground, and mine certainly hardens and tempers like conventional silver steel.

Rod

Edited By Roderick Jenkins on 19/03/2020 19:24:55