Metallurgy testing recommendations

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I've got a large piece of very special metal from the WTC towers in NYC. It's a roller bearing from one of the elevator shafts of the tower that a close friend and first responder gave me as a gift. I want to bring it back to life in another form (a knife or two) and need to confirm metallurgy. Does anyone know the easiest way to do so? I believe in talking to sources from a previous job in the metals industry that it is 52100, but there is a chance it could be a semi-stainless steel of some sort. It definitely has patina on it, but doesn't seem as reactive as 52100. Any suggestion for how I could confirm the steel that doesn't cost a fortune or require international mailing? I've used a x-ray gun on it but it comes back as a high carbon steel without specifics.
 
Xray gun is the most reasonable yes, but it has the big caveat of not giving you carbon content. But getting everything else you can guesstimate fairly well probably. Could you list what the xray gave?
 
I would most definitely recommend contacting a dedicated materials lab. They should be able to tell you how to go about cutting a test piece, and can then help you with the analysis.

Maybe if you give them some of the context they can help you out at a decent price as well. We use this kind of service at work in failure investigations from time to time and it can be quite costly in private economy terms.
 
Xray gun is the most reasonable yes, but it has the big caveat of not giving you carbon content. But getting everything else you can guesstimate fairly well probably. Could you list what the xray gave?
Thanks, Robin. I'll get you the information from the x-ray gun. I'm going to sand to bare metal again and it run another test to make sure results are similar.
 
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