So, does anyone know about 1008 steel?

[Abneycat]

I'm now thinking about resurrecting this ancient bicycle that was pulled from the attic of our garage last week. Its a "McKinley Aventurier" or something of the sort. The idea is to clean it up and make it into an Xtracycle. No worries about conversion compatibility, but the one thing I noticed is that the thing is made with 1008 "diamond" steel. Does anyone know about this material? How does it stack up against 4130? Is it strong stuff, or basically recycled washing machines?

Any input would be appreciated, thanks :)

[Sianelle]

1008 is just a reasonable quality mild steel. Should be fine for what you want to do.

[pluc]

I overhauled a 1008 bike recently. It makes a good bike.

[thdave]

I would think that "diamond" is the shape of the frame.

[Abneycat]

It might be referring to the Diamond Frame shape, the tubing is round. Its pretty old school: lugged construction, it sort of looks like my Peugeot PX-10 but with flat bars and wide 26" rims instead. I think its some sort of early mountain bike. I like lugs.

Thanks for the information on the metal :D i'm going to end up sanding it down and doing a full refinish on it, as it has a smidge of rust now.

[StephenH]

On the steel designations, the first two digits relate to alloying components and the last two digits are carbon content. The "10" means plain carbon steel, not alloy, and the "08" means 0.08% carbon content, which is fairly low. In other words, should be a plain weldable low-carbon steel.

"Recycled washing machines" is not a bad thing. When they melt scrap down, they add or remove whatever is required to get to the alloy they want- they don't just take it like it comes. Much of the steel produced is made from scrap, and that is not considered objectionable in the steel industry.