Thankyou so very much.

[Aldo]

I write this post to the many of you who, in the past have ordered the 1084(both 1/4"x1 and 1/4" x 11/2") through Mace and I. We have just recently sold the last of the 11/2". When I realized, last summer, that I could even get a hold of it I was excited to think I could get this out to so many of you who had been looking for this seemingly rare metal.

 

The 10,000 pounds of 1/4" x 11/2" 1084 that I ordered, worked out to be 10,670. The man who rolled the steel to it's final shape was one of the best and squeezed the extra 670# out of an 11,000 billet. The order arrived last October and here we are a year later and I have NONE LEFT! (Short of 50# that I owe to a certain Master Smith) and I have only 3 pieces left in my personal stock.

 

In the last 2 1/2 years we have shipped or delivered over 22,000# of either 1" or 11/2 1084 and another 1000# of 5/8-W-2. It has all been very well received. It gives me great pleasure to open up the Show and Tell Forums, the ABS Quarterly and the monthly Magazines and see pictures of the knives that are now being made by the so many talented makers in this country and knowing that I had a bit of a hand in it.

 

It was never my intention to continue in this endeavor, but it seems the demand continues and I love what I do. We are working on the next load and at the moment trying to find an available billet. If we need to get it made we will not have it rolled till late spring.(Not good to have it rolled in the dead of winter)

 

We are also looking for W-2. It seem that when Detroit stopped using it as an auto spec. steel it fell to the wayside. Don Hanson as done a great service to us all by find and getting out what seems to have been the last stockpile in the USA. We are looking in Europe to find available stock or tag onto an existing order. We will keep you informed.

 

Thank You All So Very Much,

 

Aldo Bruno

[Sam Salvati]

Aldo, You have every right to be immensely proud. I look forward to getting some things made from the 1084 and W1 i got from you.

[Matt Gregory]

You and Mace offered a fantastic service, and I'm grateful to both of you for supplying my with such great steels for really good prices.

 

Now get back to work, cuz I want 3/16" x 2" flat stock W2!!!!!

 

 

Be good, bro!

[Aldo]

I'll have it rolled special just for you Matt......So you can make those butter knives!

[Alex Roy]

No, no Aldo, those are Spatulas that Matt makes.

[Sam Salvati]

Aldo, if you can get W2 rolled off in the 1 1/2 and 1 inch wide and 1/4 thick, you'll be a RICH RICH man, i think most of the bladesmithing community would be interested in that stuff!

[Aldo]

Sam,

 

What about the guys that want 5/16 and even 3/8. 1 heat, 1roll. Round is the best bet.

[Don Hanson]

Dang, Man.

I wanted another 200 lbs of the 1-1/2" 1084. I should have called you weeks ago. Oh well, get some more and I'll take it then.

 

Thanks for making it available Aldo, I'll be in touch.

[Leif S]

There's a rumour on BritishBlades that W2 is still available in the UK, I think I've seen it on an English steel suppliers website, don't remember who, sorry.

[Kevin H]

Aldo, this is a commercial response. I'm not certain if it will help you or not. My current employer, North American Hoganas is primarily a manufacturer of iron powder. However we also operate a 4 ton and 5 ton induction furnace to produce master alloys for foundries and also produce bottom poured ingots for forging/rerolling. The induction furnaces are aided by a traditional graphite electrode heated ladle furnace and a vacuum degasser for futher refinement of the grade being produced. We produce a wide variety of alloys in those furnaces, that includes tool steels - for example on today's planned production is a modified M2 tool steel being produced for Latrobe Specialty Steel.

 

We can produce more than 1 ingot from a melt. (For example today, I believe we're producing 6 that will turn out to be about 1500 lbs each from the M2 tool steel heat.) But, if you want a particular chemistry you'd probably have to take an entire melt - about 8000 lbs. (There may be a smaller minimum - ck with the Account Manager) The production method we use guarantees we won't be "cheap". But the materials produced are of good quality and are often niche products that currently require low volumes. If you have any interest, the account manager covering sales of products from this shop is: Trevor Towns - cell phone # 814-248-0761.

 

I'm strictly on the analytical side - no benefits from the sale of any product, but thought this might help you get the materials you and others want for knifemaking.

[Aldo]

Don,

I guess you won't be needing any W-2. I'll put you on the "just in case" list. As for the 1084, I 'll put you at the top of the list like last time.

 

Lief, Thanks for the info. Got an E- Mail this morning on that from a gentleman in England. Hoping to make contact with them. Thanks Lee for that info. Tried to get a message off to you,but it didn't go through.

 

Kevin, I'll try and give this company a call as well. They're only about 4 hours from me. It would be great to have it made here. I think the cost might be prohibitive. Mills are making there min. batches bigger and bigger. Last year the smallest smelt size was 50 tons. We got in on a larger smelt and was able to get the billet we had rolled to 1/4x11/2. This year we may have to coordinate with other smelts as well, but those melts could be as big as 100 to 150 tons. Mills need to run profitably and to do that they need to make bigger melts do to the energy cost increases.

 

I hear Crucible and Carpenter will also make special runs, but that the steel can run $8.00 to $12.00 per lb. If I get it from them I get to keep the WHOLE THING cause nobody is going to buy it!

 

Aldo

[Kevin H]

Aldo, I'm not certain how our price for forging grade ingots compares to stock for foundry remelt, but we had S7 available awhile ago that had been produced for foundry use at less than $3 a lb. Costs for product vary partly with alloy content - alloys like S-7 or stainlesses cost more than something with a lot less alloys like W-2. And again, our melt furnaces can produce a max of either 4 tons or 5 tons depending on which one we operate, so that's the max heat size, and I know for certain that we will sell the production of only 1 heat. Good luck with your project.

 

Kevin

[B. Norris]

Aldo,

 

I bought some W2 steel from Dr. Batson at the spring hammer-in last year. He mentioned that he was getting it from Germany.

 

The steel is Thyssen Thyodur 2833. It is a German made w-2 steel with from

.95 to 1.10 % carbon and with .25 % vanadium.

[Justin Mercier]

Thank You All So Very Much,

 

Aldo Bruno

 

All I can say is we should be the ones thanking you Aldo. If not for your venture into the steel industry, it would be significantly harder to get quality blade steels of known composition in the area. And a lot of people may have never met yourself or Mace.

 

My only regret right now is that I didnt stock up on more steel the last time I saw you =P I've got 3 and a half 6 foot bars of 1x.25 1084 left and that stuff move so nicely under the hammer. It beats the heck outa the O1 drill rod that I'd been using.

[Aldo]

I bought (or maybe traded) some of the 11/8 from Doc last summer at the Winston/Salem Hammer-In. Is that the same batch or has he gotten something more recently?

[WillK.]

http://www.poscoss.com/product/product_01_01.html#04, lists W2

 

 

steel mill links:

http://www.isteelasia.com/tools/tool511.jsp#links8

Edited October 18, 2007 by WillK.

[Don Hanson]

http://www.poscoss.com/product/product_01_01.html#04, lists W2

steel mill links:

http://www.isteelasia.com/tools/tool511.jsp#links8

A lot of places list W2 but nobody has it, in the US. I have search.

[Don Hanson]

Aldo, I'm good for at least 200 lbs of 1084, like last time.

 

Thanks!

[Beau Erwin]

I had bought some W-2 from Tremblay Tool steel, as had Bur Foster, he mentioned this at Bowie's Hammer-in.

He did say that some of the comp varied a bit between the bits he'd had tested though.

[Aldo]

I believe Doc Batson had some of the same steel a few years back at the Winston/Salem Hammer In. Mace and I came back with some(I got it and Mace snagged a piece!) He got it from the same place I believe. I think that was the last of it. Probably a lot of rems from a lot of heats over the last 40 years.