52100 school me PLEASE

T

timfish

Joined
Jun 4, 2022
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Hey yall--please advise me on 52100
I want to make my some blades from 52100---I havebeen making knives out from 1095--with pretty good results---
how does 1095 differ from 5210?
I REALLY would like to know hoe the heat treat and temper is different---
I just heat mine a little past magnetic--quench canola--then temper at 375--but thats wtih 1095--how would it differ with 52100??THANKS===I wish a Great CHRISTmas to everyone!!!!
 
There are hundreds of documents and research literature around this question. It is not going to be answered in a couple of sentences or posts.

Start here:
knifesteelnerds.com

Bainite Heat Treatments of 52100, O1, and 1095 - How Much Toughness? - Knife Steel Nerds

New heat treatment experiments for bainite to compare with typical quenched and tempered to see if there is an improvement in toughness.
knifesteelnerds.com knifesteelnerds.com

Then Google "1095 vs 52100". There will be pages of hits, but many of the links will direct you back to discussion and information found right here on this forum.
 
timfish said:
Hey y'all--please advise me on 52100
I want to make my some blades from 52100

I have been making knives out from 1095, with pretty good results.
How does 1095 differ from 5210?

I REALLY would like to know how the heat treat and temper is different---
I just heat mine a little past magnetic--quench canola--then temper at 375--but that's with 1095--how would it differ with 52100??

THANKS===I wish a Great Christmas to everyone!!!!
Click to expand...





You're not even doing what it takes to get optimal results with 1095, I'd keep working on that before you switch steels.

Read Kevin Cashen's posts on hypereutectoid steel (1095)

Read Larrin Thomas's book.

Short answer - get optimum results with temp control of a thermocouple controlled electric kiln.
Use an engineered quench media suited to 1095 - Parks 50

Ignore the voodoo BS by Ed Fowler

I think your tempering temp is too low
You're not getting full hardness on quench if you're happy with that.
 
Last edited:
52100 is pretty tough to ht in a forge and get it right.
Too much guess work.
You could heat to as close as you think 1500 degrees is and try to hold that for several minutes, then quench in parks 50 and probably have something you could make a decent knife out of.
52100 requires hold times, so trying to thermal cycle in a forge is pretty tough.
There are much better choices for steels you can ht in a forge.
If you have some cheap or free 52100 and just want to use it, you can do few test pieces and come up with something that'll probably work out okay.
If your forging, keep it hot, it cracks pretty easy of forged at low Temps and it doesn't like to move under your hammer.
I had to learn the hard way with 52100...never did get good results out of my forge. I may try it again now that I have a ht oven.
Good luck with it, hopefully you can figure out what I couldn't.
 
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Seconding N nmbarta 's post. It really does need to soak, which makes it hard to do in a forge without running into overheating and grain growth problems.
If you have some play around with it, but i no longer buy it over other steels.
 
I have actually started choosing 52100 over the other low alloy but I have an oven and would say not the easiest to heat treat but I like the results.

knifesteelnerds.com

How to Heat Treat 52100 - Knife Steel Nerds

Toughness experiments with 52100 steel have resulted in a recommendation for achieving the optimal hardness-toughness balance with this steel.
knifesteelnerds.com knifesteelnerds.com
 
I have a couple of 52100 knives that I made.
One was heat treated at home similar to what you described. Probably in the high 50s HRC. It is a very serviceable knife, but I have to touch up the edge pretty often
The other was professionally heat treated to 61.5 HRC by JT ($12) and it is amazing. Night and day difference.
 
Check out everything everyone here has mentioned.

Also look up larrins knife steel nerds video on heat treating in a forge.
 
If you are heat treating in a forge and quenching in canola... the difference between 1095 & 52100 won't matter. What would be of more benefit to you is choosing a steel better suited to the equipment you have. Something closer to .80% C, without much alloying. 1075, 1080, 1084... Just get them to non-magnetic and quench... don't try to soak or shoot for the 1500F mark... it's not worth the risk, without actual controls in place..
 
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