You know, this discussion is starting to point out a very sad fact: in a generation, we have gone from a society and culture that "makes things" to one that "uses things." Just like many believe that hamburger, milk, and vegetables "come from the grocery store," many believe that guns "come from the gun shop" and tools from the hardware store.
Iirc the octagon tool steel we used at Trinidad was W1 grade (water hardening) and was called "Black Diamond. " I think it was made by Crucible Steel. 105 points of carbon. It hasn't been available for a long long time but was commonplace for many decades. The lengths of handle stock were likewise available in a lot of places but haven't been since folks' making of their own handled tools has gone out of favor. Carpenter Steel's "Solar" hex rod has gone away too. It was a "tough" rather than a "hard" grade and was excellent for making screw drivers. All gone. Now as SDH has pointed out some suppliers don't even know the difference between oil- and air- hardening.
If it can't be made on a cnc machine nowadays (and in a foreign country to boot) it might as well not exist. A while back a fellow was admiring my lathe when he said, "Oh, it's manual. Nobody does that anymore." Yup.
And don't get me started on files. They have all gone offshore and most of them are absolute crap. Nicholson, Simonds, Disston, et al might as well be done. Made in Brazil, Colombia and other locales, I've encountered more junk than I can shake a stick at. I even bought a box of files made in Germany that were some of the worst I'd seen... and not cheap either.
Nobody (present company excepted of course) seems to be the least bit interested in hand work anymore or the tools associated with it. I even saw a Web site for a gunsmithing school proudly displaying CAD and CNC equipment with nary a hammer or forge visible.
So we owe folks like Steven here thanks, kudos, and a huge debt of gratitude for keeping these traditions somewhat alive. To paraphrase Joni Mitchell, "Sometimes you don't know what you've got till it's gone."
