Anyone have any knowledge of this tool steel alloy?

Mikel Levy · Oct 18, 2018

I acquired a number of these "Bonded Carbide" steel toolbits along with some other lathe stuff, but I have never seen this alloy before, nor can I find any information on it. I kinda doubt it's just a pretty substrate for a brazed-on carbide tip, as some of these have ground cutting edges. Anyone know what this stuff is? I suspect it might be some poor quality import product. Thanks for any info or even an educated guess.

Mike

Gordon Heaton · Oct 18, 2018

All carbide is 'bonded' isn't it? Can you grind those with normal stones?

Mikel Levy · Oct 18, 2018

Gordon Heaton said:
All carbide is 'bonded' isn't it? Can you grind those with normal stones?

It grinds pretty much like high speed steel, except the sparks are a darker orange color (compared to high speed steel sparks).

atex57 · Oct 19, 2018

Any time I have seen dull orange sparks on a tool bit it has been a lower quality item. They seem to work OK if you run them slow and a lighter feed.

Ed.

Matt_Maguire · Oct 19, 2018

IME high speed steels have a long bright spark stream when ground aggressively. Stellites have much shorter spark streams, which are bright orange. Tungsten carbides will be a shorter yet spark stream, and a lighter orange than stellite.

Tungsten carbide is way heavier than HSS and stellite is in between heavier, but easily detected in the hand.

Good luck,
Matt

MattiJ · Oct 19, 2018

Matt_Maguire said:
IME high speed steels have a long bright spark stream when ground aggressively. Stellites have much shorter spark streams, which are bright orange. Tungsten carbides will be a shorter yet spark stream, and a lighter orange than stellite.

Tungsten carbide is way heavier than HSS and stellite is in between heavier, but easily detected in the hand.

Good luck,
Matt

And stellite is non-magnetic. HSS attracts strongly to magnets, tungsten carbide only mildly.

MattiJ · Oct 20, 2018

Apparently there is also steel bonded titanium carbide:
Steel Bonded TiC - Grade Selection :: Ferro-TiC SBC

Doesnt look like really a candidate for lathe tool but its also possible that OPs blancks were intented for something else orginally.

thermite · Oct 20, 2018

Mikel Levy said:
I acquired a number of these "Bonded Carbide" steel toolbits along with some other lathe stuff, but I have never seen this alloy before, nor can I find any information on it. I kinda doubt it's just a pretty substrate for a brazed-on carbide tip, as some of these have ground cutting edges. Anyone know what this stuff is? I suspect it might be some poor quality import product. Thanks for any info or even an educated guess.

Mike

View attachment 240450

The "Grand Old" major makers of the HSS (and stellite) tribe do tend to have better finishes, even if showing grinder swirl, and to do a decent, even rather elegant, job of marking with a "name"(Tatung G, Rex 95) than what you foto'ed.

So yes, looks "offshore", and with English-language markings I will SWAG India, and not necessarily even export-target.

But WOTHELL.. just go try it. It might be usefuler that average and decent value for money at knocking-down initial passes of corncob weld or the like that tears up most tools anyway. "Cobra" were like that, and they were only ignorant T1's.

.

tnmgcarbide · Oct 20, 2018

perhaps it is from Carbide, W.Virginia . could it be a promotional item for a bail-bonds company in Carbide
-like ball point pens &tee shirts

maybe not tungsten carbide . lots of other carbides .

rogertoolmaker · Oct 20, 2018

Strange Steel Alloy

Mikel Levy said:
I acquired a number of these "Bonded Carbide" steel toolbits along with some other lathe stuff, but I have never seen this alloy before, nor can I find any information on it. I kinda doubt it's just a pretty substrate for a brazed-on carbide tip, as some of these have ground cutting edges. Anyone know what this stuff is? I suspect it might be some poor quality import product. Thanks for any info or even an educated guess.

Mike

View attachment 240450

Vanadium Carbide heat treats like tool steel at 1450 deg. Quench in oil and hardens to 70Rc. Stelite is a bonded cardide. Look it up on the internet for information. Pure speculation on my part!

Roger

L Vanice · Oct 20, 2018

tnmgcarbide said:
...maybe not tungsten carbide . lots of other carbides .

The most common carbide in tool steel is probably forgotten by most people. It is iron carbide or cementite, the stuff that makes plain carbon and alloy steels and cast iron hard when heat treated in certain ways.

Larry

bones525 · Nov 13, 2019

Bonded Carbide was made by Braeburn Alloy Steel Co in Braeburn PA - I've also got some of this HSS and some of it has the name on it. From what I can tell, it's T5 or T6. The Traditional Tools Group (Inc.) -- Document View is my favorite page for identifying forgotten flavors of HSS and you can see Bonded Carbide JR and SR mentioned on the page.

richard newman · Nov 14, 2019

Great source of information, thanks for posting that link.

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Anyone have any knowledge of this tool steel alloy?

Mikel Levy

Aluminum

Gordon Heaton

Titanium

Mikel Levy

Aluminum

atex57

Stainless

Matt_Maguire

Stainless

MattiJ

Titanium

MattiJ

Titanium

thermite

Diamond

tnmgcarbide

Diamond

rogertoolmaker

Cast Iron

L Vanice

Diamond

bones525

Plastic

richard newman

Titanium

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