L6 Carbon Steel

K

Knifeclerk

Joined
Jul 16, 2004
Messages
1,083
Any opinions on this type? I see L6 being used in the Filipino line currently being put out by CAS. I haven't gotten to handle any of the pieces yet, but am wondering how this steel is at least. Are there any other products out there using this?
-KC
 
I can't vouch for the Filipino line, but L6 is great stuff, especially when it has a Banite heat treat. :cool:

Ever seen a sword take chunks out of another sword and still bend 90 degrees and return true? I have! :D
 
L6 is very tough steel. It is used in bandsaws. You have to watch for rust though. Military knives used to be made out of it. I would love to see more knives in L6.
 
I've been lusting after a Clark L6 bainite sword for years. They are a great value, but they ain't cheap :(
 
L6 is a very tough steel with moderate hardness. The original Gerber Fighting Knife was made from L6. I find it relatively hard to sharpen. That is odd since it tends to be down around 56 to 58 RC. I guess that part of the problem is to avoid burr formation. I have tended to leave my L6 blades with a rougher finish than on ordinary carbon steel of equivalent thickness. I think of this as a great steel for a combat knife.

L6 is mentioned in Joe Talmadge's steel FAQ:
http://www.bladeforums.com/features/faqsteel.shtml

PS: I went crazy this morning trying to locate the Bladeforums Knowledge Base and Bladeforums-specific FAQ. Once I was in the forums I couldn't find a combination of button clicks that would get me there. It used to be that I could just click the Bladeforums logo at the top of a page and be taken high enough in the directory structure to reach things like the knowledge base. Now it only takes you up to the top of the forums section.

So for general illumination: You need to type "www.bladeforums.com" into your browser address field to go to the root of the website. From that level you can pick "Knowledge Base" or FAQ's out of the Site box. In the knowledge base you can pick the "Knife FAQ's", which are what we usually mean when we say "go look it up in the FAQ's" around here.
 
I'm smacking myself right now. I can't believe that I forgot about Howard Clark's L6 Bainite. I just didn't put two and two together. Now I'm pretty hyped about these filipino swords.
Thanks Guys.
-KC
 
A bunch of years back -- maybe 6 or 7 years ago -- there was a poll on a knifemakers' email list, asking something like "which is the steel you'd use for your personal knife?" L-6 was the winner.
 
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