Admiral Steel

N.W. Gean

N.W. Gean

Joined
Oct 10, 2018
Messages
463
I just received 2 2x60" bars of "HR 1075/1080" from admiral steel for 55 bucks, shipping included. The stuff looks pretty clean (still some scale to deal with) and parallel, and a file took off material pretty nicely for steel that isn't annealed (I wouldn't know the difference tbh, this is my first time working with not-annealed steel). Is there any reason to doubt it's good quality steel? Or does admiral get a bad rap for no reason?
 
The have been fine for me in the past.

I am pretty sure your steel is annealed. HRA is Hot Rolled Annealed and CRA is Cold Rolled Annealed. Pickled is the same but has been through an acid bath to remove most of the scale.
 
I live about 45 minutes from Admiral. I've used their HR 1095 in the past, without much issue. There may be some hard spots, as (if I'm not mistaken) their HR product is not typically annealled.

I think people have been a little gun shy with admiral due to some 1095 that wasn't heat treating well (this was years ago), and then there was some steel that they were mislabeling as L6, but that was fixed years ago as well.
 
Admiral gets a bad rap for the following:

• The L6 mislabelling fiasco - which is a HUGE deal
• Shearing rectangles to size, which can imbue a lot of stress and twist/warp
• Poor handling of order filling mistakes (for example, asking customers who have received the wrong size or grade to return the items at their expense)

I personally won't buy anything less than a full sheet from Admiral, because that's the only way I know that I'm actually getting what I'm told (refer to the recent thread about certs for more details). Buying full sheets is a hassle because Admiral makes you arrange your own truck shipping.
 
Why does Admiral label their steel as “1075/1080” instead of “1075” or “1080”?
 
Apeman said:
Why does Admiral label their steel as “1075/1080” instead of “1075” or “1080”?
Click to expand...
They don't label their steel as “1075/1080” - look at their catalog. When they do list two different grades, it's presumably because the metal fits into one or both of the AISI specs.
 
That's exactly how they list it on the website and the knife steel catalog. 1075/1080. It appears to me it's done because the tolerance they list for carbon content and manganese content bridges both specs.

I use it in damascus frequently. I don't know if I'd use it as mono steel.
UjQ1LIh.jpg

pFdnJeY.jpg
 
kuraki said:
That's exactly how they list it on the website and the knife steel catalog. 1075/1080. It appears to me it's done because the tolerance they list for carbon content and manganese content bridges both specs.

I use it in damascus frequently. I don't know if I'd use it as mono steel.
UjQ1LIh.jpg

pFdnJeY.jpg
Click to expand...
Thank you, that’s what I figured the answer would be.
 
Another problem Admiral had a long time ago was exposing customer data, including credit card data, on the web. The data breach happened twice.

Chuck
 
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kuraki said:
That's exactly how they list it on the website and the knife steel catalog. 1075/1080. It appears to me it's done because the tolerance they list for carbon content and manganese content bridges both specs.

I use it in damascus frequently. I don't know if I'd use it as mono steel.
UjQ1LIh.jpg

pFdnJeY.jpg
Click to expand...

Too much manganese for a good hamon, so people shouldnt confuse it with aldo’s 1075 (not talking to you John, just a general comment.)
 
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I got some of that 1075/1080 years ago when I first got into making knives, but that was because it was the closest thing to 1080 or 1084 I could find at the time (before Aldo had his own site), but now that I see the carbon content again I'm wondering why it isn't actually labeled as "1070/1080"...?

Also, their 1095 seems to be a bit more "dirty" than that from NJSB, so I'd rather use Aldo's for mono steel blades in 1095. May not make much of a difference, but I only buy in smaller quantities so that's what I go with. I have, however, been meaning to pick up some of their 203e for san mai for quite some time now, as the nickel in it creates a pretty neat effect when etched, almost similar to a wrought iron/nickel go-mai blade. :thumbsup:

~Paul
My Youtube Channel
... (It's been a few years since my last upload)
 
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