Forgiving Beginner steel

K

krob

Joined
Nov 8, 2017
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Hi all, new to the forum, and have a few questions.

I recently forged a couple of blades from old leaf springs, and they seem to be performing surprisingly well. Now that I kind of have my bearings on things, I would like to purchase known steel to make a couple of knives.

I am looking for advice on a forgiving beginner steel. I only have a coal forge to do the heat treat. I heat to non-magnetic, go a bit hotter and quench in oil, finish with tempering. I want to make a few small blades(2-2.5") for everyday carry where edge retention is needed more than toughness, and possibly a 6-7" chef style knife.

Steels I am considering...52100, Cru forge V, 15n20, or 1084/95. Please post links to other discussions containing this information.

Thanks for the advice.
 
https://www.alphaknifesupply.com/zdata-bladesteelC-CruForgeV.htm

I'm a novice but use same heat treat procedure (by magnet and eye) and have been pleasantly surprised by performance with both 1084 and 15N20. Both Cruforge V and 52100 should theoretically give better edge retention for slicing tasks but tougher to do simple heat treat due to higher alloying and being hypereuctectic.

The upside of simple carbon steel like 1084 is not only the easy heat treat but that it's ridiculously easy to get murdersharp and in my experience can be stropped back to 75-80% of that sharpness on newsprint/cardboard or easily very quickly sharpened back on a handheld hone to very close.

I'll shut up and let the more experienced makers chime in...
 
1084 and 1095 are not the same stuff. 1095 is not "easy" to heat treat to its maximum potential.
 
52100and 1095 aren't simple HT.

Try 1084, 5160, and 15N20 for fairly simple HT. O-1 isn't too hard to do either.

1084 is the eutectoid, and the simplest steel to HT. No soak time needed. Get it to the desired temperature and quench in 130F canola.
 
Going to go with 1084. Thanks for the info. Exactly what I needed

Any particular vendors better than others?
 
While 80CrV2 is eutectoid, it has a bit of alloying that needs some soak time. Overall, it is a pretty easy to HT steel.
 
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