Do all knife steels need to be normalized?

Tom Lewis

Tom Lewis

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Feb 24, 2000
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Do all knife steels need to be normalized. Specifically I was thinking of 0-1 and 5160.
 
Its depending on the condition of the steel from supplier if you do stock removal. If you do forging you definitely need to normalizing every time.
 
I'm personally going to do it no matter what as Rick said. I've lost enough time needing to redo HT. Even if it comes out good, there is nothing wrong with better.
 
What about forging PM steel? How do you normalize, can you?

I'm wondering regarding forging the higher end air hardening steels.
 
kuraki said:
What about forging PM steel? How do you normalize, can you?

I'm wondering regarding forging the higher end air hardening steels.
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Those would be among the steels that HAVE trustworthy documentation of internal structure and thermal history
 
years ago j d smith (abs mastersmith) asked me if i normalize my blades at a knife show. i told him i did not need to since they are stock removal, they were 1084. he informed me that i need to, because the steel was forged at the factory and does contain stresses. i do it on all high carbon blades now. i get almost no warping problems since i started doing it.
 
If the factory is doing things right, it gets normalized as it's rolled out, and then spheroidized annealed. But like we have found out, that's certainly not always the case. I don't do it with stuff like PG01.
 
samuraistuart said:
If the factory is doing things right, it gets normalized as it's rolled out, and then spheroidized annealed. But like we have found out, that's certainly not always the case. I don't do it with stuff like PG01.
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PG01 is a steel I’ve never heard of.

Oops, pg O-1 got it.

Hoss
 
Rick Marchand said:
Anybody forging cpm steels is asking for trouble.... any air-hardening steels for that matter.
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If I wasn't looking for trouble I'd find another hobby :D

Aside from the narrow temperature window in which they may be forged are there other concerns?
 
When forging blades the focus should be on grain refinement, which in my shop, includes stress relief, normalizing and all the heat processes that are needed if your goal is a well structured, straight, tough knife blade. After some time at the anvil it will become part of your process almost with out giving it much thought at all. It is part of the rhythm of forging.

Happy grinding, Fred
 
A few years back, I asked the rep from B-U if forging PM steels was a problem. He said no because you should never get to the temps they use to squish the stuff together. Your mileage may vary. The first guy that I ever heard of forging PM steel was Sean McWilliams with CPM60V/T440V. Bailey Bradshaw forged CPM 3V.
 
The condition of the steel before quench and temper does make a difference.

The finer the grain before the quench the finer the grain after the quench.

The finer the pearlite or the finer the spheroidite before quenching the finer the grain and spheroidite after the quench.

Higher alloy steels are not normalized. Most low alloy and simple steels respond well to normalizing. Higher alloys are annealed.

Normalizing is a fast way to condition the steel before heat treating.

Some steels have been reported to have coarse spheroidite from the mill which would need to be cycled in order to respond better to hardening. Forging at recommended temps will have larger grain and should be normalized, or annealed in some cases.

Hoss
 
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