Leaf spring for knife making

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Backwoods1234

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I have a question regarding leaf spring for knife making I’m not a total newbie I’ve made a few just never with leaf springs
 
What do you want to know?
Advice- buy a known steel from a supplier and use that.
 
Don't use it would be my advice
I still remember my first knife I made from leaf spring,big impressive fighting bowie,after all my work in the end I noticed tiny cracks in the blade
Steel is cheap to buy
 
"IF" it's an OLD (30 yrs +) leaf spring and is free, then it "might" be worth using. Being an old leaf spring would "tend" to make it 5160. "IF" you're looking at it as a learning experience in forging, then go for it. That's how I learned what little forging knowledge I have is with old "mystery" steel. Made some good knifes. I also had those cracks showing up in the steel. At the time I thought the cracks were from the old steel. Now I'm not sure but what it didn't come from forging after the steel had cooled too much.

It's MUCH cheaper to learn stuff like that on old "free" mystery steel than spending $10 to $20 on a bar of steel to forge.

"IF" this is your first knife, and you're wanting assure best possible chance of making a fantastic knife, then buy a known steel!!!! BUT - "IF" you're looking for a learning experience that might well make a decent knife, then go for the leaf spring steel.

Ken H>
 
Use it , would be my advice .Make one , two , four knife ......why not ? Nothing is wrong with that steel , except that leaf spring like to bend back when you don t want it or you will find some mysterious crack just before you think that you made good knife :D But nothing is wrong with all that .....practice lead to perfection ....:thumbsup:
 
I've used chunks of leaf spring to forge a few knives. I'm from the salt belt and after a few years of being drove around the amount of corrosion that builds up on them
is crazy. Often pretty pitted even.

That corrosion was such a PITA to clean off and it seemed like no matter how careful I was to keep scale down while forging I would still end up with an inclusion or two.

That's the main reason as of late I stay away. It's a great learning experience to cut out a small chunk (1"x3" or so) and draw it out into a 7-8" OAL knife, though. Just expect alot of cleanup before forging and after.

Edit: And normalize, normalize, normalize!
 
The only pro is that it is chaep and easily available.

The many cons include:
Corrosion may be deep into the steel.
Microcracking ( not visible to the eye) may cause the blade to form larger cracks or break in use.
Exact makeup of the spring is hard to know. Springs haven't been 5160 for a long time. The current alloys ( over the last 20 years or more) can be all types of steel. You can use a general purpose HT, but that is just guessing that the blade comes out OK.
Warping is a big issue.
Generally too thick for blades so it must be reduced in size.
Etc.
 
Leafsprings steel can turn out great, but sometimes not.
It can be lots of fuel & work drawing down to blade thickness too.
Anyway I make alot of stuff from them. Made a few knives, but primarily froes, slicks, axes, etc.
 
I used to use leaf springs for making wrap style hawk heads … with a 1095 bit welded between the "U". I switched to WI for the "U", and liked it better.
 
Last edited:
Backwoods1234 said:
I have a question regarding leaf spring for knife making I’m not a total newbie I’ve made a few just never with leaf springs
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Use it for fun. I made a beast of a kitchen style knife that I can chop firewood or whatever and not so much as a nick on blade ..
 
Good advice ramsman77, but this thread is 6 years old. Backwoods hasn't been around for a while, too.

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