Better functional sword steel: 5160 heat treated or traditionally forged?

Well, IF the zombies come, just hole up for a week or so, and the zombies will decay too much for them to be a threat. Honestly, does anyone actually think it's even a remotely realistic possibility?
 
crimsonfalcon07 said:
Well, IF the zombies come, just hole up for a week or so, and the zombies will decay too much for them to be a threat. Honestly, does anyone actually think it's even a remotely realistic possibility?
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It's a fun analogy. And it's less troublesome than talking about chopping up looters. I've thought for a long time that the zombie stuff was mostly a sci-fi/horror allegory for rioters/looters.
 
Funny, I think the world is already over run with Zombies. They just aren't obviously rotting or groaning and biting people. They do however seem to transmit their illness, mostly by text it seems......
 
I'd take 5160 through hardened over the vast majority of options for a functional steel. There are only a few things that i'd choose over it.

The reason for this isn't that it's "the best". On the contrary, there are quite a few better steels that i probably wouldn't choose unless i knew the maker and their track record with that steel. 5160 is a very common steel and the heat treat is relatively simple. For that reason, MANY makers have gotten very good at heat treating it very well. THAT is why i'd choose it. The average 5160 blade from the average maker is still likely to be very functional and serviceable. Many high end awesome exotic steels can be seriously screwed up by someone who isn't experienced with the HT protocols
 
I question if you can edge quench 5160, it is a though hardening steel. Even if you applied clay, you would still get a though hardened steel. The clay will not make a bit of difference. If anyone knows different, I'm always willing to learn.
 
I have a kukri in 5160 that was clayed and shows a bit of a hamon. I have no clue if it's genuinely DH, but i doubt theres more than 5 difference between the edge and spine

either way, it's insanely tough, and one of my favorite blades
 
Pretty sure it's not genuinely differentially hardened, if it's the one I'm thinking of. I'd think the Miller Bros should chime in too. They do 5160 for swords VERY well.

That being said, 3V all the way!
 
crimsonfalcon07 said:
Pretty sure it's not genuinely differentially hardened, if it's the one I'm thinking of. I'd think the Miller Bros should chime in too. They do 5160 for swords VERY well.

That being said, 3V all the way!
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We found (through testing) that 5160 gives GREAT results in sword length items as well as smaller knives. here is a video of steel on steel edge retention. http://youtu.be/dB4wLoso-BY These results are why we use 5160 for almost all our Swords.
 
no kidding. That video was pretty darned impressive. I'mma do that with my TGLB and see how it holds up
 
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