Leaf spring knives

T

TickBlade

Joined
Oct 11, 1998
Messages
100
Can decent knives be made from direct stock removal of leaf springs?
Are they heat treatable?

Thanks,
Tim

 
Yes you can and yes they are heat treatable. Read Wayne Goddard's $50 knife shop in "BLADE" that would help. leaf springs are 5160 they make real good swords but they do make good knives. After you grind them to shape heat them to ~1500 that is were a magnet will not stick and let them cool in still air,this called normalizing. Then heat them up again(same temp) let them cool in some kind of insulation, to slow down the cool it should take about 6-7 hours to cool,This is called annealing.Then heat it up one more time and quench it in some oil, The way I have read and the way I do it is quench it three times, then temper it three times. Temper it in your oven start at ~325 after first temper do the brass rod test on the blade. that is where you flex the edge with a brass rod if the edge breaks you are to hard, go higher in temp by 25deg or so. if it is to soft you have to quench it again. what should happen is the edge should flex then spring back. After you find the right temp do it three times. and you will have a good blade. The best way to heat them up if you don't have a real forge or real heat treat oven is with a propane torch and some fire bricks, stack up the bricks sides bottom top so you have a hole big enough to put or blade then on the side put the torch in, it will get 1500-1800deg in the little forge. just right to heat up your new blade.

[This message has been edited by gregj62 (edited 19 December 1998).]
 
Tim,

For what it's worth the khuhuris made by Samis in Nepal (imported by Himalyan Imports)all start with leaf springs. They swear by Mercedes, followed by Saab and then Japanese car springs. They zone temper them in crude forges and the resulting 5160 blades are very tough.

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-=[Bob]=-

Bald is beautiful! Rub a dome for luck today!

 
Are ALL leaf springs 5160 or are there some that should be avoided? Also, I'm told that coil springs from Chevrolet trucks are 5160, but that other companies use other steels. I've always been afraid use coils and leaf springs I find on the junk pile because of this. Am I being paranoid?
 
I think all leaf spring are 5160, All the ones I have used are. I use coil spring for my forged blades and leaf springs for the stock removal. And I have used everything I could get(you know the free ones)and they are all 5160. If somebody has every found a car spring that is not 5160 I would like to know. If there is anything else other then 5160 I bet it would be 5150 but I dought it. If it is a spring it has to be made out of stuff that springs are made from. So I would be pretty sure that it is 5160. Most metals would not hold up.
 
My first knife was out of an M.G.B. leaf spring. I still use 5160 for a lot of my Bowie knives. It's a very forgiving steel. Gummy when you grind it and a lot of sparks. Watch out for burning gloves! I usually by virgin 5160, it is less work and not very expensive. I have had some leaf that would not loose its memory after annealing and recurved on heat treatment. A neat thing about 5160 is that you can edge harden (differential harden) and you can often see the temper line. Good Luck.


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Ron Ruppé
http://www.ruppe.com
 
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