Bought a 'high carbon' bar stock online for $80, turned out to be mild steel with a bad case harden. Ruined a whole knife blank.

3 comments

3 Comments

noah88021d agoMost Upvoted

Hold on, that's way too harsh! Plenty of beginners start with cheaper stock to learn on before dropping serious cash. How is someone supposed to know fair market value without trying things first? The real problem is sellers lying about the material, not the buyer's budget. Blaming the price just lets dishonest sellers off the hook.

williams9021d ago

That $80 price tag should have been the first red flag. Real high carbon steel in bar stock form costs way more from reputable suppliers. I've seen 1084 go for over $120 for a decent sized bar. You're basically paying for a gamble with those cheap online metals. Sometimes you get lucky, but most of the time you get mystery metal. It's on the buyer to know what a fair market price is before clicking buy.

andrew77810d ago

Wait, is 1084 really that expensive now? I got a bar from a good supplier last year for like ninety bucks. I mean yeah, the super cheap stuff is a total gamble, but there's a middle ground. Some online places are just smaller operations with less overhead, not always scammers. It's not always a red flag, sometimes it's just a decent deal.