Old Steel striker works better than new one?

[Ash Eyler]

Hey guys so i just got back from Friendship today and i bought a new steel striker that is bigger and more comfortable than my old one but it doesn't spark nowhere near as good as my old one.....any advice or info of why this is and what i can do to make my new one spark better? Heres the OLD one

NEW ONE looks like this

 

[Coffeecup]

There's a fair chance the surface of the new striker is just decarburized from heat treatment; try dressing it on a belt sander or (lightly) on a grinder. You'll want to only take off a few thousandths at most. Then try it again--if that doesn't do it, it may need re-hardening.

 

[LRB]

There's a fair chance the surface of the new striker is just decarburized from heat treatment; try dressing it on a belt sander or (lightly) on a grinder. You'll want to only take off a few thousandths at most. Then try it again--if that doesn't do it, it may need re-hardening.

That is very good advise. Your old one looks to made from 1095 key stock, which is about as good as striker steel gets, without going to radioactive material.

 

[necchi]

Yup, what Wick an Coffeecup said,
Getting a striker right is more than just the shape, it's a skilled Blacksmith that can make a sweet one and something many "new to the forge" strive for. Often trying for years before they perfect the skill.

I always try a steel for spark before I buy it, my best cost me 35, is quite fancy (Dragons head) and throws a shower of white sparks that you can hear "crackle" as they fall.

Kinda mean to say, but a typical striker with mediocur sparks seem to be a dime a dozen now-a-days. Maybe a Smith can fix it, maybe he can't,,
He'll be starting with an unknown metal,, :idunno:

 

[LRB]

Doesn't require a blacksmith to make a good one, just the right steel, and the right heat treat. For example, one very well known and highly respected smith/knifemaker was making strikers for a friend of mine, for resale. Of a dozen strikers, maybe three threw good spark. This friend thought it was only a fluke, knowing this smith very well, and bought another dozen some time later. same scenario repeated. My friend is now buying strikers from Crazy crow, and they work great, but are poorly made as to craftsmanship.

 

[necchi]

I'll be the first one to admit I know darn little about metals!
(followed the Carpentry school myself, need to build a house?)
I'm lucky enough to have a few friends localy that have spent a lifetime working with metal and always defer any issues/questions I have to them.

I truley appreciate you and a few others sharing your knowledge and skill here as freely as you do,,
:bow:

 

[LRB]

Don't need a house built, but I can do that also, if needed. As long as it is relatively simple in design.

 

[VTdeerhunter]

I agree with Wick. Have personally blacksmithed more than a few strikers over the years and 1095 is as good as it gets for big hot showers of sparks. W1 or 5160 are close, but I don't tend to wander...

If you are the do-it yourself type you can find a free supply of 1095 everywhere; most car leaf springs are 1095 or W1 tool steel (one set of leaf springs will yield lifetimes of strikers), old files (not the new ones that are low carbon steel with case hardened teeth), old rakes or pitch fork tines, even most lawn mower blades are 1095 or 5160...

Have also seen some that just don't spark as good as the one next to it that I made minutes before out of the same chunk of steel. Normally it comes around after another heat treat cycle, which leads me to believe operator error....but once in a while you just get a dud???? probably still my fault in some way, but at that point I chuck it into the scrap pile to be re-made into something else later....

 

[necchi]

And the moral of the story is;
Try it before ya Buy it.

 

[Rifleman1776]

What is yur technique for heat treating?

 

[LRB]

Times have changed. There are maybe a half dozen different steels or more used for auto leaf springs. 1095 being rare for that now. Lawn mower blades these days are commonly found to be non hardening low carbon because of liabilty issues. Better they bend than break and become airborn scythes is the thought behind that. Pitch fork tines, hay racks, and a lot of farm implements are usually 1080, or in that range, which is good, just not as good as. I use a brine quench for 1095.

 

[VTdeerhunter]

I'll tell you but you can't say a word :wink: ...it's an old family secret that my grandfather taught me :nono:

Most people heat to a dull cherry red and then quench in water for high carbon steel, some then temper a bit, most don't for a striker...

I expect that I might get some flack on this, cuz the way I was taught is a bit different than the way most do it, but for what it's worth to you, here ya go...

After I get the steel to the shape I like, I heat it up to a bright cherry red ("past the Curie Point" as Grandpa B would say)...originally he then made me hold a magnet next to the steel as it started to cool, as soon as the magnet felt a little pull everything was dropped into the quench bucket....after a bit I could recognize the right color as it cooled and did away with the magnet (it was too hot anyway as I was taught to smith without gloves)

The quench I use is old pickle brine...not water or oil, never asked but I suspect we used it cuz we had it, being that we never threw anything out that we could use for sumthin else...

As an engineer I understand the physics behind what he learned through doing...Over simplified, Steel is basically a cube molecule made up of iron and carbon, In steel the carbon is found in the center of the molecule at a low state of energy (cold)...As the steel is heated, more energy is given to the carbon which at some point alters its position to become centered on the face of the cube. If the steel is rapidly cooled at this point the carbon doesn't have a chance to get back to its place of rest and low energy...the faster you quench the steel the more carbon stays on the face....Heavy brine is considered to be the fastest quench media, so my method has technical merit as well as traditional value from the way I was taught...

Caution here....making a striker you are looking for a very hard surface, this is not the way I harden other things. If what you are making has an important function you need to understand the type of steel you are working with or risk failure...if you quench water hardening steel in oil it will be too soft and if you quench oil hardening steel in water it will be too brittle...either one can have bad results...the exception to this rule is if you are making a large item like a hammer head or heavy tool, the large thermal mass will cushion the shock of quenching so the medium used is less critical...

 

[VTdeerhunter]

Thanks Wick for the update, I don't want to give out bad advice...the stuff I was talking about and use myself is "old stock" as I've mentioned before Grandpa B never threw anything away, have plenty of leaf springs left over from the farm stuff (1920's - 1960's) as well as broken pitch forks and rake parts to go along with the pile of lawnmower blades he used as the caretaker of the local cemetary....makes sense that the new stuff is made cheaper and out of beer can steel...

Sorry if I mis-led anyone on my thoughts....just sharing what works for me...

 

[teb0atoz]

Work with your technique. I found thos tow differant steels had to be struck differently. The newone I just strick on the very last half inch of the rod and it works well.
cheers