safe disposal of broken blade

[anotheranon]

I've just broken my first (foil) blade in quite awhile.

How can I safely throw this away? I don't want to accidentally scratch/impale the garbage collectors, which is what I'm afraid will happen if I just toss it in the dumpster with the rest of the household refuse.

Thanks in advance

[Purple Fencer]

I've just broken my first (foil) blade in quite awhile.

How can I safely throw this away? I don't want to accidentally scratch/impale the garbage collectors, which is what I'm afraid will happen if I just toss it in the dumpster with the rest of the household refuse.

Thanks in advance

Wrap the broken end in a ball of duct tape, perhaps.

[cplmontana]

We actually turn ours into fencing trophies. One epee, one sabre, one foil kind of put together like a teepee. Then you set the medal in the top. Just a thought...

[chinbeard]

I've just broken my first (foil) blade in quite awhile.

How can I safely throw this away? I don't want to accidentally scratch/impale the garbage collectors, which is what I'm afraid will happen if I just toss it in the dumpster with the rest of the household refuse.

Thanks in advance

OMG thatz exactly wut happened 2 vladimir smirnov's less successful younger brother alyosha!

[Eisley]

I've just broken my first (foil) blade in quite awhile.

How can I safely throw this away? I don't want to accidentally scratch/impale the garbage collectors, which is what I'm afraid will happen if I just toss it in the dumpster with the rest of the household refuse.

Thanks in advance

Garbage collectors are well used to protecting themselves from potential hazards I'm sure, but if you're really concerned just wrap sharp edges in duct tape like suggested above, or if you have a fencing store near you, when you go to get the blade replaced just give them the broken one and they'll dispose of it for you.

[Inquartata]

Here's what you do:

Heat the blade to an orange color using a torch or in a pinch the burner of a gas stove. Alternately, when a magnet will not stick to it, heat it a little more. Keep it at that heat a while, then stick it in a bucket or wheelbarrow of wood ashes or kitty litter and leave it until cool. This will anneal the metal, making it less hard and more pliable. Using vise grips, or a vise and pliers, bend it into a hoop, or a spiral, or a billet, or what you like...

This will also teach you a lot about hot-working steel.

Or you could just keep the thing, like I have done with just about every blade I have ever broken. Occasionally you can find a use for them!

[Purple Fencer]

Here's what you do:

Heat the blade to an orange color using a torch or in a pinch the burner of a gas stove. Alternately, when a magnet will not stick to it, heat it a little more. Keep it at that heat a while, then stick it in a bucket or wheelbarrow of wood ashes or kitty litter and leave it until cool. This will anneal the metal, making it less hard and more pliable. Using vise grips, or a vise and pliers, bend it into a hoop, or a spiral, or a billet, or what you like...

This will also teach you a lot about hot-working steel.

Or you could just keep the thing, like I have done with just about every blade I have ever broken. Occasionally you can find a use for them!

Tomato stake?

[SJCFU#2]

I once heard of someone who ran a small construction business. Supposedly he would bind broken blades together to form a grid which he would then use to reinforce the concrete when pouring driveways.

Another option would be to look for a building demolition site - I doubt that they would notice a few extra bits of bent steel mixed in with the old rebar. Or simply take it to a recycling center or used scrap metal dealer - steel is among the most widely recycled materials known to man.

[erik_blank]

Tomato stake?

They're a bit to short for my plants...

[Nolano]

Here's what you do:

Heat the blade to an orange color using a torch or in a pinch the burner of a gas stove. Alternately, when a magnet will not stick to it, heat it a little more. Keep it at that heat a while, then stick it in a bucket or wheelbarrow of wood ashes or kitty litter and leave it until cool. This will anneal the metal, making it less hard and more pliable. Using vise grips, or a vise and pliers, bend it into a hoop, or a spiral, or a billet, or what you like...

This will also teach you a lot about hot-working steel.

Or you could just keep the thing, like I have done with just about every blade I have ever broken. Occasionally you can find a use for them!

So... Annealing and cold working a blade somehow teaches you about hotworking steel...

Good luck doing much to these blades cold, even annealed. Steel is one of the least cold workable metals, much less when you've got carbon steel or maraging steel on your hands.

That aside, find your local steel scrap recycler. They'll take it for free, and you keep it out of the landfill.

[Morale Officer]

You could put an old bell and grip on it and use it to roast weenies or marshmallows...

[michaelheggen]

If you live somewhere where there is easy access to recycling facilities, then do what we do:

Have your salle collect broken blades in a five-gallon bucket. Once or twice a year, or when it gets too full, take it to scrap metal recycling and get 50 cents for the lot.

-Mike

[Inquartata]

Maybe I should bend an old blade into the shape of a fist with middle finger upraised and mail it to Nolano...

[Nolano]

Maybe I should bend an old blade into the shape of a fist with middle finger upraised and mail it to Nolano...

We all have our areas of expertise with which we can correct eachothers mistakes. You've got yours, too. Just don't be mad that I picked one more useful than grammar and semantics

[Inquartata]

Hah! You thought I was admitting to being wrong? Ah, but no, sir.

1) You have to heat the steel to anneal it. You have to be able to judge colors. You may not be hammering it, but "heat" equals "hot".

2) You might be surprised at how much ductility you get with a softened blade. A hoop is certainly zero problem. ( I have seen extreme bends even in the tempered steel blades, so I don't know why you think they are difficult to get in an annealed one. )

3) In summary, again!

[the ancient one]

Obtain a 55 gallon drum.
Place blade in drum.
Fill with NSS High density concrete and allow to cure.
Paint drum safety yellow.
Send here:

http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov/

Pay special attention to slide #3.

[Eisley]

We all have our areas of expertise with which we can correct eachothers mistakes. You've got yours, too. Just don't be mad that I picked one more useful than grammar and semantics

pwnt!

edit** I just like to note that it's really great you're concerned about recycling and not having the blades just wind up where ever and possible a hazard to other people etc. I think a combined suggestion from above of both saving up the blades until you have a few and then dropping them off at a construction sight unnoticed, or any other place where the city properly disposes of scraps seems like the most efficient and easiest thing to do.

[Nolano]

Hah! You thought I was admitting to being wrong? Ah, but no, sir.

1) You have to heat the steel to anneal it. You have to be able to judge colors. You may not be hammering it, but "heat" equals "hot".

But that's simply not hot working. You learn something about heat treating steel. At no point did you mention actually working the blade hot.

2) You might be surprised at how much ductility you get with a softened blade. A hoop is certainly zero problem. ( I have seen extreme bends even in the tempered steel blades, so I don't know why you think they are difficult to get in an annealed one. )
*snip*

I'll have to let this one go, I haven't tried annealing a blade. I just know steel is a b**** to cold work, and I'd much rather hot work it.

Yeah, you can get a pretty bad bend in a tempered blade but that's usually from an extended period of use or abuse. Try getting a long, even, extreme bend in a good tempered blade. Unless it's truly terrible, it's not going to happen.

[migopod]

Nolano is 100% correct. By definition hot-working is done on material while it is heated above its re-crystallization temperature.

Heat treating is not the same as hot-working.

[cplmontana]

Obtain a 55 gallon drum.
Place blade in drum.
Fill with NSS High density concrete and allow to cure.
Paint drum safety yellow.
Send here:

http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov/

Pay special attention to slide #3.

Actually, I just bought a uranium epee blade...supposed to last forever. Really good for flicks. But I get really hot with all my fencing stuff on+the radiation suit.