You could do a hardenability test. Take a small piece of the sample steel, heat to red heat, quench in oil. If the steel is hard and can not be cut with a file or saw, it is likely silver steel or at least a high carbon steel. If it is soft and can be cut with file or saw, it is mild steel or iron bar.

JD

A spark test is pretty good for differentiating mild and silver steel. Try grinding a piece of each and you'll see the difference in sparks. I've had to sort out some silver steel from PGMS recently and it worked well. There are pitfalls, I've been confused by monel, not to mention nickel (german) silver and some stainless is magnetic…

Rod

Ken, If you look carefully at the ends of the bar if it is PS Stubbs silver steel it will be stamped P S Stubbs — unless of course it has been cut at both ends.

Other than that the spark test or the hardening test are the best way to go.

When you sort it out I would suggest you star using a paint making system so you can identify your materials, get yourself a few car touch up pots, the ones with a brush in are the best. You don't have to stick to the colours used by the main suppliers but its a good idea if you want to

John