Harley primary chain steel?

Will52100

Will52100

Joined
Dec 4, 2001
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Anybody know what steel is used in a US made Harley primary? A buddy of mine just put a new one on his 64 pan and gave me the old one. I welded it up into a billet, and wound up doing 6 folds to get rid of voids and increase reduction. Anyway I forged a test blade and it didn't seem to want to get hard in the quench. I was using Brownell's tough quench. I'm wondering if I should try water, or if I like the pattern just do a sanmai.

Thoughts? Not expecting a high performance knife, but would like to get one that would do what a knife is supposed to do. I'll know more after getting it out of the oven and testing.

Thanks
 
Before doing roller chain, take apart a few links and pins, test harden them, heat and quench, break with hammer.


I've found that most do harden

Some modern motorcycle drive chains are permenantly lubed and have o rings inside that will kill your welds.
 
Thanks, it welded fine, and was probably originally put in the bike in the late 80's or early 90's, no O-rings either. I didn't do a quench test, but a spark test showed plenty of carbon.

I'm just wondering if anybody knows what alloy most American chain is made from?

Thanks
 
I've used them in canister welds; ground the pins off and took them apart. They welded well and hardened well using Parks 50. That was some of the hardest steel to grind, it ate ceramic belts.

Fred
 
The primary's are tough stuff , so are the drive chains . Never saw a primary brake , they run in oil .
 
I have used a lot of Harley Chain. 15 or so years ago I made friends with a Harley mechanic, and he saved up the chains for me. I like to add chainsaw chain to the Harley chain. I have no idea what the Harley Chain is made of. I am sure there are better knife steels out there, but collectors like the Harley chain knives.
I quench in Brownells Tough Quench heated to 120 degrees F. I have had no problem with it hardening.
With the chainsaw chain added in, every blade comes out with a somewhat different look.
 

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Thanks, I'll post pics, I finished heat treating and was under impressed with edge holding. It'll do what a knife is supposed to do, but it won't hold an edge very long. I quenched in Tough Quench heated to 130F. Tempered at 350F. It passed the brass rod test and handled chopping OK, but pure cutting it lost it's fine edge pretty quick. I haven't tested to destruction yet, so I don't know how it'll handle abuse. Might be OK for a hawk though, especially with a high carbon bit.

I think what I'll do is try a sanmai, probably with a 1084 core. Interesting pattern anyway.

Tom, that's a good looking knife, my pattern came out a bit finer, but it's got 6 layers. You adding chain saw chain may raise the carbon content, or it may be you have better chain. The one I used was made in the US though.
 
Most traditional plain motorcycle chain is usually plain carbon (1050ish carbon content) steel. Enough for it to be hard, but not enough for it to be brittle. It will give you about the same edge as a HC marked RR spike. My partner here does a lot of RR spikes, chain damascus, wire rope damascus and the like. His take on it is the same as his RR spike knives. Great for looks, and will pass as a knife as long as not too much is asked of it... (Makes cool looking cheeks for a san mai affair...)

That said, once you get into the performance aftermarket, there are chains made from a whole slew of alloys. There are stainless chains, weird alloys for extreme speeds, internal o-rings, specifically machined oil holding surfaces, chains that match a specific type of sprocket for a specific task, etc etc etc...

My weapon of choice for a couple of years... I've since slowed down a hair...
74f9699e8f1a8a84c7fb4357a5e2f197.jpg

ZX-12R w/ Muzzy stroked and poked 1375cc setup, Muzzy Ti 4-1 custom shorty can, Dynojet FR3 Race PP, etc etc etc...
-Eric
 
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Here's a pic, not real finely finished, straight off the grinder and a quick etch. It acts a lot like a low or medium carbon steel like a 1050ish, glad I'm not going crazy.

Also, here's my addiction, err ride. It's got kevlar belts though, no chain.
 

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Will, I didn't fold mine. I used a hydrolic press to squeeze it together, then took it to my 100 lb little Giant Power hammer. Folding would make a finer pattern.
 
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Here's one I did . has a 15n20 core that stayed pretty much centered but still more of a show piece than a user.
Take care
TJ
 
Cool pattern. Reason I folded was to get rid of voids, I probably could have done it without folding, but first time I've done a primary chain.
 
Probably cost prohibitive but what if your had it case hardened before welding. You could up the carbon content of the whole thing sort of like an ol folded steel knife that was folded to equalize carbon content (would it add enough to matter?). I know nothing about forge welding or Damascus though so ignore me if that was ignorant lol.
 
Interesting idea, it'd be a simple mater to do it in the oven with a bone meal/charcoal pack. Don't know how much would scale off during forge welding though. One possible issue might be by case harding it might make the alloys of the chain too similar so that it would not make as much contrast during etch. Not sure if there's enough element difference other than carbon content.

Anyway, I think the way to go is a sanmai, a core of 1084 or similar for edge holding. Might try some of that tonight.
 
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