1095 steel vs high carbon 1095 steel. Would be nice if a metalurgist happened by.....

Ballenxj

Ballenxj

Joined
Oct 30, 2010
Messages
2,124
I was conversing with a guy today that said there is a high carbon 1095, and a regular 1095 steel. :eek:
I immediately replied that I thought the hi carbon content was just part of the basic 1095 formula, and the tempering made the difference in the different hardness's. He replied no, there is a difference. I'm still not convinced that he is right. :rolleyes:
Anybody that can either refute or confirm this? :)
-Bruce
 
Paging Mete...pick up the white courtesy phone please.
Paging Mete...pick up the white courtesy phone please.


You happen to be in luck. On will be by shortly.
 
AFAIK, the 10 indicates it's part of the 10-series set of high carbon steels. 95 means it's .95% carbon. So yeah, 1095 and 1095 hi-carbon would both have .95% carbon. e.g., that guy doesn't know what he's talking about, and both steels would have the same carbon content.
 
Last edited:
1095 has .95% nominal carbon. That's why the last two digits are 95. 1084 has .84% nominal carbon. 5160 has .60% nominal carbon. If the recipe called for more carbon than .95% then it probably wouldn't be labelled xx95 but rather xx100.
 
Well, the 1095 we knife enrhusiasts know and love is not exactly "high" carbon, since it has less than 1%, but 1095 is 1095. The name implies the carbon content, so if you had a 1095 with exta carbon, it would be 10-something-else, and no longer 1095.
 
And, now enter,

DUM DUUM DUUUUUM

1095 CroVan.

Yeah, I went there.

:D

Moose
 
Ballenxj said:
I was conversing with a guy today that said there is a high carbon 1095, and a regular 1095 steel. :eek:
I immediately replied that I thought the hi carbon content was just part of the basic 1095 formula, and the tempering made the difference in the different hardness's. He replied no, there is a difference. I'm still not convinced that he is right. :rolleyes:
Anybody that can either refute or confirm this? :)
-Bruce
Click to expand...
Would you accept the word of a materials engineer?

The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) sets the spec for the 1000 series.

The compositional limits of the AISI 1095 specification are
C_____0.90-1.03
Mn____0.30-0.50
P_____0.04 (max)
S_____0.05 (max)

I suppose you might find a batch of alloy with a carbon content at the high end of the spec, but you couldn't count on getting it consistently.

1095 is not like 420.
1095 has a minimum and a maximum carbon content. 420 only has a minimum.

You can put as much carbon in a batch of 420 alloy as you want and as long as the rest of the composition lines up, you can still call it "420 steel".
However, with 1095, if you go above the maximum carbon content, it isn't 1095. And there is no spec for "1095HC".

Just as a note, any alloy with a carbon content over 0.55% is considered "high carbon steel". So any batch of 1095 which meets the standard 1095 spec could be called high carbon.
 
  • Like
Reactions: vba
1095 is bacically Iron and 1% Carbon.

A great Solid Knife Steel.

Perfoamance will totally depend on Heat treat and Geometry.

0170-6 - 50-100B and 1095Cr0-Van are the Same Steel

It is 1095 with a little chromium added for better hardening - A little Moly for Edge Strength and a little more Edge Holding - A little Nickel for some added Toughness and a little Vanadium for better Bonding.

the use of the term 1095Cro-Van is not a steel term or even any real name for a steel.

It is something that developed from internal memos between Sharon Steel (The Developer of the formula) and all of the Knife Companies that ordered it back in the 50s - 60s - 70s & 80s. Companies ordered it from Sharon and the name stuck - internally between those Companies.

It was never a name for the Steel.

I really wish Companies had Stuck to the real names for that Steel.

0170-6 and 50-100B.
Click to expand...

:p

Yeahhh.
 
I love the talk of steel in the morning! (Well it's morning here) :)
 
knarfeng said:
Just as a note, any alloy with a carbon content over 0.55% is considered "high carbon steel". So any batch of 1095 which meets the standard 1095 spec could be called high carbon.
Click to expand...

Interesting... So even next to tool steels that are in the 3% range, stuff under 1% can be called high?

Seems like that definition of high predates some of the crazier steels out there... :)
 
Yea, we used to call stuff with that much carbon "cast iron". The high carbon label comes from a change in the quenched structure that begins to appear as the carbon content goes above 0.55% - 0.6%.
 
Grease said:
Interesting... So even next to tool steels that are in the 3% range, stuff under 1% can be called high?

Seems like that definition of high predates some of the crazier steels out there... :)
Click to expand...

considering that some of the most common structural steel is 1018, 1% is really high. Plus the plate and lath martensite like me2 mentioned.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top