mild steel as blade steel

Usually used in bayonets. It's tough but doesn't hold a edge very long.
 
Usually used in bayonets.

Most Bayonets were and are made from good quality tool steel. Bayonets take a lot of stress; A mild steel bayonet would easilly bend out of shape.

n2s
 
If you're talking about a 1020 forget it. Even a 1040 will be poor.Bayonets are made of good alloy steel.
 
wadly said:
Using mild steel as a blade any comments?
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As a blade this would be poor as has been mentioned it could not be hardened enough to keep an edge or not bend when subjected to a load.

Need medium carbon to make a tough but decently hard bayonet.

One historical use of mild steel was to make the Roman pillum or throwing spear. The shaft was mild steel that was soft enough that when penetrating a shield it would bend making it hard to remove and impossible to be thrown back at the Legion.

Putting the same steel into a bayonet or knife would be obviously not so desirable.
 
Which I have, is mild steel. Sharpens very easily, but looses it's edge very quickly. Rusts too and bends easily in the config. they have.
 
wadly said:
Using mild steel as a blade any comments?
Click to expand...
I made a couple as test pieces mainly out of curiosity after talking to a maker who used it as well as Al alloys :

http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sstamp/knives/tension_bar_proto.html

Yes you can make a functional knife out of it which can cut significant amounts of rope, cardboard, woods, weeds, foods and fabrics.

[CS shovel]

ERdept said:
Which I have, is mild steel.
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The standard version is medium carbon steel, heat treated.

-Cliff
 
Mild steel has a carbon range of .05% to .30%. At .30% carbon, properly heat treated you should be able to get a serviceable blade. Not sure why you would be considering a knife with a mild steel blade?
 
wadly said:
Using mild steel as a blade any comments?
Click to expand...
How much worse than 420hc could it possibly perform? People are willingly hock over major bucks for junk made out of that just because it says Kershaw, Buck or Cold steel. What is the difference? If you view your knife as a consumable, Mild steel makes sense.
 
Performance is a lot worse than 420hc. When I was in school some of us tried making knives out of mild steel because it was the only steel we could get....
 
It isn't that mild steel doesn't need to be heat treated -- it's that it can't be heat treated. Heat treatment has no effect on it; it just stays soft no matter what you do....

There's no reason not to try it for yourself, though. It's easy to work. Just take a piece of whatever scrap you have around, or buy a length at a hardware store, and put an edge on it with a file and then your regular sharpening stones. It's easy.
 
How much worse than 420hc could it possibly perform?

420HC is a pretty decent steel, it is a heck of a lot better then 420J, and even that stuff is better then mild steel.

n2s
 
on the subject of steel, i have a 1" thick X about 24" long printing press axle i have been dying to heat in the forge and hammer into a knife or two...any thoughts on using axles like this for knives?? (i'm a noob, bear with me...)
 
One thing you can do with mild steel is to harden it with cold work. You basically hammer it to shape at room temperature and grind the edge very carefully so as not to get it hot. I used to make heavy blow gun darts with the last 2-3 inches made from coat hanger wire. I would hammer the end flat and grind a sharp arrowhead shape on it. These were pretty durable.
 
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