1095 Properties

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VIXIVIXIV

Joined
May 14, 2017
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Hello all,

This is a question for all of the knife makers in this section of the forum:

So, I recently have been using CAD to design a pry bar, and I have been going over many materials. I decided that I would consider a prototype acceptable when it had strength similar to that of a Ka-Bar Becker Tac-Tool, which is a knife designed to double as a pry bar. According to Ka-Bar, the hardness of the 1095 Cro-Van in the Tac-Tool is 56-58 HRC. As such, I am curious if anyone knows the other properties, i.e. yield strength and tensile strength, at this hardness, as I am currently using an application that can simulate the effects of various loads when given material properties and a shape.

Thanks

Edit:
I made a slight error in my original post, and was referring to 1095, not 1095 Cro-Van. Unfortunately, I don't believe it is a very common steel for custom knifemakers.
 
Last edited:
1095 is s simple steel with .95% carbon, 99% iron, and a mix of alloying making up the other .5%.
I would pick a steel that was more alloyed for a pry-bar type stress. S-7, 5160, O-1, D-2, 80CRV, 52100, and many others would work.
 
The Becker heat treat is very soft for 1095. I think it has more to do with the price of the steel than any performance reasons. It's my understanding that even 1084 can give a lot more performance. Stacy's suggestions will offer much more performance and the extra cost will not be noticed for the amount of pieces that you will be making.
 
1095 CV can make a fine hard edge. I finished a Becker blank for a guy and it heat treated nice and hard. I think they leave them soft to reduce broken tips or the like.

But would not be my first choice in a pry bar.
 
kuraki said:
1095 CV can make a fine hard edge. I finished a Becker blank for a guy and it heat treated nice and hard. I think they leave them soft to reduce broken tips or the like.

But would not be my first choice in a pry bar.
Click to expand...
1095CV/0170-06/50-100B is not 1095 and as best as I can tell, not readily available at a "retail" level. the best substitute for that might be 80CrV2. I would be inclined to use L6 because of its crazy yield and tensile strength, but it is not an ideal steel for folks looking to build to a price point if you have to start with flat bar.
 
I guess I never looked at the actual composition. It made a hamon more like 1095 than CRV2, though.
 
Ultimate Tensile Strength 56-58rc = 313 - 338 ksi (for MPa multiply by ~7). Yield Strength is about half of UTS. Tensile Strength (at dislocation movement threshold) = ~ 40 ksi <= a pry bar has low cycles of flex so fatigue doesn't really apply, so TS easily supports at 1/2 YS (~ 80 ksi). *note - service life drastically reduces as load approach Elastic Limit (YS).

VIXIVIXIV said:
Hello all,

This is a question for all of the knife makers in this section of the forum:

So, I recently have been using CAD to design a pry bar, and I have been going over many materials. I decided that I would consider a prototype acceptable when it had strength similar to that of a Ka-Bar Becker Tac-Tool, which is a knife designed to double as a pry bar. According to Ka-Bar, the hardness of the 1095 Cro-Van in the Tac-Tool is 56-58 HRC. As such, I am curious if anyone knows the other properties, i.e. yield strength and tensile strength, at this hardness, as I am currently using an application that can simulate the effects of various loads when given material properties and a shape.

Thanks

Edit:
I made a slight error in my original post, and was referring to 1095, not 1095 Cro-Van. Unfortunately, I don't believe it is a very common steel for custom knifemakers.
Click to expand...
 
If you want fairly easy gain in TS (True-Elastic-Limit), pick steels simple to produce smallest grain possible via standard/industry ht. 10xx and Stacy+other's recommended steels with good ht would produce grain diameter around 10um (micron). Steels with more alloying elements% are less prone to grain growth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grain_boundary_strengthening

With a little homework good ht M2 and M4 are capable of producing grain near 6um diameters. Plugging 6um into Hall-Petch relationship formula, you would see a ~23% TS improvement over those steels/matrix with 10um grain dia.

If/theoretically somehow ht(whatever steel) managed/extraordinary produce 1um grain dia, translate to about 166% improvement over 10um grain dia.

bluntcut said:
Ultimate Tensile Strength 56-58rc = 313 - 338 ksi (for MPa multiply by ~7). Yield Strength is about half of UTS. Tensile Strength (at dislocation movement threshold) = ~ 40 ksi <= a pry bar has low cycles of flex so fatigue doesn't really apply, so TS easily supports at 1/2 YS (~ 80 ksi). *note - service life drastically reduces as load approach Elastic Limit (YS).
Click to expand...
 
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