Subject: Re: Directional properties in plate

From: BILL PATE <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 12 Sep 1996 13:49:24 -0400 (EDT)

<This is an interesting post and I felt obliged to comment.  I have heard this
<"grain direction" debate for years and still don't have a definitive answer.
< Some tool engineers that I have spoken to swear that steel develops a
<direction of grain flow, but steel is crystalline and shouldn't react this
<way.  I read a treatise some time back which stated that hot rolling (or
<forging) improved molecular structure, but it was due to better distribution
<of carbides which occurred under pressure and not to the direction of grain
<flow.  In other words, if the alloying elements tended to form molecular
<clumps, then the rolling/forging redistributed them and created a more
<homogenous material, but it did not have a "grain".  This article said that
<Hollis

I often use a cold saw to cut material, which leaves a smoother cut than a
band saw. You can see a pattern in the cut end which is made of of a series
of lines parallel to the rolled surface of the material (i.e. circles on a
round, straight lines in a square or flat). I had assumed this was the
"grain" left by the rolling process.

Bill Pate.

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 12 Sep 1996 19:08:23 -0700

Bill,
  May be way off, but I think the patterns in the end of a cut off bar
show the scratches left by the set of the teeth in the blade.  Large 
round stock will exhibit a circular pattern, square stock a parallel 
pattern determined by when the set on one side of the blade hit the outer 
edge and bounced a little sideways, then back and forth as it works it's 
way through at each pass.
  This is really off the wall, but maybe a lunatic observation. :-)