cheap but good steel?

[hurley0816]

any steel out there for a newbie that isnt too expensive? I dont want to practice on high qaulity stuff, but want something that will still make a good knife. Thanks

 

[Ed Caffrey]

Carbon/alloy steels are still very inexpensive in the grand scheme of things. 1080, 1084, and 5160 are all very cheap ($3-$5 per pound). These are all basic steels, that are forgiving, easy to heat treat with home shop tools, and make excellent blades.

If your wanting stainless, those steels are going to be way more expensive.
Here's a link to someplace that you can compare the prices of each....
Admiral steel prices
The other consideration is...do you have the means/equipment to heat treat the higher alloy stainless steels? Or, will you be sending them out for heat treating?

 

[wordsmith]

+1 on the 1080, 1084, and 5160. They're cheap, easy to heat treat, and pretty readily available. Kelly Cupples has it for very fair prices and he's a great guy to deal with. Don't have a link, but if you google "Kelly Cupples Steel" you'll find him pretty easily.

 

[blgoode]

Do yourself a favor and dont associate cheep with good. The heat treat is the key. You can pay nothing for the steel or $100 a pound for it but if you dont invest in the heat treat it will be not worth having.

 

[Nathan the Machinist]

Do yourself a favor and dont associate cheep with good. .

Yup.

Heck - 1095 is about as cheap as it gets, and it makes some very outstanding blades. Needs a very fast quench though...

1084. :thumbup: Inexpensive, easy to heat treat, and will out perform any knife you can buy at walmart.

 

[cotdt]

I think 1084 is one of the cheapest, and also one of the best. It takes a wicked keen edge. Though I can get any steel to whittle hair, 1084's edge simply catches onto everything, and can treetop armhair. I used multiple quenches (1500F and 4x 1450F) which according to a paper produces a fracture grain size of 15 (!).