Value of scrap tool steel?

I have a bunch of tool steel, in the form of busted tools. Horizontal mill cutters, mostly, by weight.

Does this stuff have value over ordinary scrap steel?

If not I'll toss it in with the rest.

Also have a few pounds of scrap carbide, busted drill shanks etc. I assume that has value, but as I recall the shipping to recyclers eats up the return on it.

true?

I've been told by my scrap man to just throw all steel in the bin. I asked about hardened tool steel in punch and die sets and he said just throw it in.
That is probably why I am getting this lousy steel that tears up my tooling.

I think that unless you generate large quantities it isn't worth messing with.
Next time I see my tool steel salesman I'll ask him about it.

Les

I suppose that if you make a lot of scrap, you need to get rid of it once in a while. I just never throw-out broken tooling. I always seem to find a use for it--Small bits, cutters, scrapers and other do-dads.

Yeah, some is re-usable. But what to do with the one (of four) 4" shell end mill that has a tooth broken off at the root?

Or the 5" plain milling cutter likewise broken?

You would think that HSS would have definite value, on the one hand, due to being specialty steel. And, you would think it would have negative value in the general run of scrap-derived steel, too.

HSS isn't something you can easily anneal, nor easily heat-treat, either.

Evidently there is no premium. But then scrap dealers aren't exactly PHDs, either. They may not care, may not know, may not have a path to dispose of tool steel through, or just be looking at tonnage, these days.

After all, its ALL just going to china anyway.

And coming back as shoddy, defective goods from WalMart.

I suppose that if you make a lot of scrap, you need to get rid of it once in a while.

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C'mon now Ken, I don't make scrap, I generate it as a by-product.

Les

Broken cutters are worth about $20 a ton.

just toss them in the scrap unless you can grind them in to tools again.

I take the "value added" approach to scrap and broken tooling. I make more valuable junk out of it by building a lamp around it or polishing the item and potting it in clear resin as a paper weight, etc., etc.. Sometimes as a trophy to a metal butcher on retirement or a "Thanks for lending a hand." award to a fellow fabricator. Sometimes it's just a booby prize for this weeks "screw-up" or last weeks "at-a-boy" but always in humor with a good laugh together.