410 stainless for liners on liner lock?

F

fetz

Joined
Dec 30, 2003
Messages
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will 410 stainless .050 work for a liner on a liner lock or will it be too soft and
possibly bend down the road, i know most use titanium, has this 410 been used? i have seen some with brass liners so i really am not sure.
thanks in advance!!!!! and happy new year yall!
 
my understanding is that 410, hardened, is actually tougher than ti.

for spring resiliance, i can't imagine stainless or ti will have that much difference at the deflection amounts required.

a number of production houses use stainless for the liners and lockbars... crkt and al mar come to mind.

-j
 
It will have to be heat treated but it works very well. I've made several folders with it, and have been pretty happy with the results.
As far as heat treating, I don't know the proper method, but heating to cherry red for a few seconds and a rapid air quench have worked for me.
Without heat treating it won't retain its shape enough to be used as a spring, and might eventually break.
 
Kershaw uses it on their framelocks i believe, they are as solid as anything ive handled thus far.
 
would just the liner lock part (the part that springs out and locks the blade)
need to be heat treated? if so can i do it with an o/a torch? and what would
be the procedure?
 
I believe its best to HT 410SS with the same care as you would any stainless steel blade. For me that would mean sending it away to a professional HT-er. I personally don't like the (for me) hit and miss method of air hardening a high-alloy steel with a torch. I always figured to make it more worth my whiole, I'd make a pocket clip as well while I was at it and have that HT-ed too at the same time.

I'm planning to make a folder this year- haven't started yet. Interesting to hear that hardened 410 is tougher than Ti ... But I suppose you can't anodise 410 like Ti. Jason.
 
Jason Cutter said:
Interesting to hear that hardened 410 is tougher than Ti ... But I suppose you can't anodise 410 like Ti. Jason.
Click to expand...

Steel is stronger than titanium dimensionally. Ti just gets its reputation because it has a higher strength to weight ratio than steel.

I'd like a more specific heat treating operation, but the torch method has worked for me so far. Gotta do with what you have sometimes :D

You only HAVE to heat treat the spring part Fetz. Heat the whole tab, from the face where it meets the blade all that way back a little bit beyond the end of the cut.
 
ok, so i head just the spring part, then whats the radpid air quench, just wave
it around in my shop unitl its cool? or fire up the air compressor and blow it off? or...........?
 
Just has to have air movingh around it. The air compressor would probably work just fine, don't even need that high of pressure. You just don't want it sitting in still air.
 
cool! thanks matt will give it a try, hey so that will harden it, so then do the
regular oven temper at say 400 degrees or what?
 
I'd start lower than that, maybe 300 deg and see what you come up with. You really just want to relieve any stress in the peice. It won't harden beyond the low to mid 40's RC if I remember right, so your not going to have any real issues with it being brittle.
 
Don't know about the heat treating, but function wise I like ti better. On linner locks with 410 linners I've owned, including Benchmade, the linner wears faster than ti and moves all the way over faster. Ti also seems to "stick" to the lock better than the stainless.

Just my personal prefferance, but I'd rather have a ti linner, there is no reason at all why stainless won't work though.
 
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