Big thumbs up to 15n20

Let me know Cody I can help with your minimum.

Love this steel, been using it in hunters and kitchen blades (as well as Damascus) for several years now, it's all that and more as well as an excellent value.
 
From what we have seen with 15N20 and other simple steels of late, I was wondering how L6 might do at higher hardness?
 
That's true, L6 is normally left softer at around 58rc but it does have a decent as quench hardness. But I wonder what it's edge stability would be like compared to say 15n20.
 
Treated properly it should be comparable, though the L6 would be considerably more expensive. The 80CrV2/L2 that is popular now would also be comparable theoretically. Heat treatment critical.
 
I wanted a heavy Hunter of 15N20 so I did a kerosene weld on a stack of pieces.
I think this one was about .250" when I forged the blade out of it.
It performed on par with anything else I make.
It would be nice to have some of the thicker stuff.

 
After you welded them up could you see the weld line. I have been thinking about welding some up as I have a ton on .072 thick 15n20 and would like to have it in thicker sizes. I will just have to keep the numbers of layers odd so a weld does not end up right on the edge. That's a great looking knife you got there.
 
Karl, I recall that you scored some really good quality 5160 a number of years ago. How did that 15N20 compare?
Karl B. Andersen said:
I wanted a heavy Hunter of 15N20 so I did a kerosene weld on a stack of pieces.
I think this one was about .250" when I forged the blade out of it.
It performed on par with anything else I make.
It would be nice to have some of the thicker stuff.

Click to expand...
 
JTknives said:
After you welded them up could you see the weld line. I have been thinking about welding some up as I have a ton on .072 thick 15n20 and would like to have it in thicker sizes. I will just have to keep the numbers of layers odd so a weld does not end up right on the edge. That's a great looking knife you got there.
Click to expand...

The billet I welded was a minimum of 2 inches thick when I started. By the time the billet is reduced to a 1/4 inch one would never know where the welds or the cutting edge is going to be.
By the time it's reduced it should be one homogeneous piece of steel anyway.
 
jdm61 said:
Karl, I recall that you scored some really good quality 5160 a number of years ago. How did that 15N20 compare?
Click to expand...

I would need to do a side-by-side comparison to be able to answer that question.
I'm currently selling some of that "special" 5160. ;)
 
Yeah, where were you a few years back before I bought too much steel and how big of a truck did you have to rent just to move that pile? :D But seriously ladies and germs what quenchant did you use for the 15N20? I realized that I have enough "spare" .072 1. 5 wide 15N20 to mess around with a 1.5-2 inch billet and see what kind of damage I can do. I actually had a crazy idea of using some of it to make a san mai billet using my last 6 x 1.5 piece of 5mm 115W8 as the core.
Karl B. Andersen said:
I would need to do a side-by-side comparison to be able to answer that question.
I'm currently selling some of that "special" 5160. ;)
Click to expand...
 
jdm61 said:
Yeah, where were you a few years back before I bought too much steel and how big of a truck did you have to rent just to move that pile? :D But seriously ladies and germs what quenchant did you use for the 15N20? I realized that I have enough "spare" .072 1. 5 wide 15N20 to mess around with a 1.5-2 inch billet and see what kind of damage I can do. I actually had a crazy idea of using some of it to make a san mai billet using my last 6 x 1.5 piece of 5mm 115W8 as the core.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure I used Parks. I made that in 2013. I'm not sure that was a sound decision, but I did because of its thickness.
Considering 15N20 will air harden, and you can plate quench thin blades, a slower oil might have been better.
 
Karl B. Andersen said:
Pretty sure I used Parks. I made that in 2013. I'm not sure that was a sound decision, but I did because of its thickness.
Considering 15N20 will air harden, and you can plate quench thin blades, a slower oil might have been better.
Click to expand...

I've tried medium oil, plate quenching, and DT-48. I get the best performance using DT-48. I think you get a mix of pearlite and martensite with the slider quenching methods. They mostly harden, but when I go for a Rc62 finished product, the DT-48 produces a very stable edge. If you go Rc60 or lower, any quench would probably do.
 
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