A10

[fastcamo]

Would A 10 make a good knife with a 7"- 8" blade?

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

I'll let mete make the decision on this one, but from what I can see in the specs, I would pass on it as a blade steel.
Carbon is too high,for one thing. It is a good steel for machining parts,but not made for blades as far as I can tell.
Stacy

 

[fastcamo]

Thanks Stacy, That is what i was thinking also,

 

[mete]

A-10 is a really great tool steel for many reasons .However A-10 along with it's oil hardening relative O-6 ,are graphitic tool steels which contain small pockets of graphite which give excellent machinabitity and will hold oil for lubricating properties.They were developed as Graph-Air and Graph-Mo by the Timken Co. The graphite will create some inherent brittleness which is not the best thing for knives. Any free machining grade ,such as free machining D-2 will have similar problems. Yes people have made knives of these steels but there are better choices....For an 8" blade A-2 would be an excellent choice.

 

[fastcamo]

Thanks mete very much as always