mixing steel

Sure you can melt steels together, that is what foundries do. But then you can mess up the alloy content and the cost of the equipment to have any idea what you get as a result isn't cheap. Becoming your own steel mill is just going to give you expensive steel in terms of materials to run the thing and be of dubious quality. How do you know you didn't get inclusions of junk in your junk yard steel to start with and so on?

And with no way of knowing what alloy exactly you put in you have no way of knowing what you will get. So you are expending labor and resources to make an already inconsistent product more inconsistent. Working on improving known sources of inconsistency until you can get a consistent product is a better solution than making things more inconsistent.
 
What do you have for heat treating equipment. Do some research and find a steel that you have the equipment to handle. Or find someone to do the heat treat for you. If your wanting top notch performance from your blade "good enough" HT won't cut it. It needs to be spot on!
If a coal forge and a bucket of used motor oil is all you have(and nothing wrong with that) pick a steel you can work with.
 
bladsmth said:
.....quality steel. .....


That is the problem. Leaf springs and old coil springs are not necessarily quality steel. With rare exception, by the time they end up in the junk yard, they most likely have micro-fractures and other problems. Also, it is very unlikely they are 5160 or 1095. Those old generalizations stopped being accurate nearly 50 years ago.
Brand new O-1 in .25X1.5" is $10 a foot. New 5160 is $6 a foot....... Free, no...quality steel...Yes!

Saving a few dollars on a knife and not getting the best knife is false economy. The steel is often the smallest cost involved.
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GlacierWolf_Knives said:
OK so junk yard steel is out for stuff I sell. What non stainless high carbon steel would you guys recommend.
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Bailey Knives said:
Aldo's 1084
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Bo T said:
A simple eutectoid steel. @ 1075 through 1087. Aldos 1084 is a good choice.
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GlacierWolf_Knives said:
I see a lot of knives made out of old wrenches. Would that be a good steel?
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Steel is not like watercolour paint, you can't just mix up two and make a new colour.



If it's a made in china wrench it's maybe not good steel, if it's a good quality wrench, they why would you kill a perfectly good and expensive tool ?
especially when steel is so cheap.



You already have the answers, all you have to do is accept them.
 
12345678910 said:
Steel is not like watercolour paint, you can't just mix up two and make a new colour.



If it's a made in china wrench it's maybe not good steel, if it's a good quality wrench, they why would you kill a perfectly good and expensive tool ?
especially when steel is so cheap.
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Also regardless of where it is made and the quality of it, the qualities that make a steel good for a wrench might not be well suited to make a knife.
 
5160 is good steel and is easy to HT. 1084 is good steel and very easy to HT. O-1 is a really good carbon steel and moderately easy to HT. 52100 is excellent, but takes a better grade HT. What is your HT setup?
 
Take a look in the exchange and see what people are using, and selling. Steel is a personal choice, and dependent on intended use.

For backyard smithing with minimal heat control, 1075/1084 from Aldo is what you want. Its forgiving, and doesn't require long soaks at specific temperatures. Use 1075 if you want a hamon, and 1084 if you want deeper hardening.
 
I think Stacy is referring to what is your heat source, temp control/verification, quench medium, and tempering equipment/procedure? While Old School is romantic, this is the process that gives you the best possible knife. If you are guessing, how can you know your customers are getting what they paid for?
 
I'll somewhat echo, Bladsmth.
Learn how to do 5160 properly and you will have a great knife.
It can even be differentially HT'ed with a coal forge and tepid water if you know what you are doing.
Doesn't get much simpler or inexpensive than that.
 
I have a ceramics kiln with several settings and a thermometer. Used motor oil, used veggie oil, and water. And I gauge the temper by the color of the steel. I also have a waste oil burner that I'm trying to figure out how to forge with. My temper is usually around 600°F. Light blue color after the violet shows up.
 
Not trying to be a downer, but you really need to do some reading and studying of GOOD metallurgy and knifemaking.

Wrench knives, 600 temper by color, leaf springs as good steel.....all say you need a new information source. I would start by reading all the stickys.

This search engine will find most any info on BF you want, too:
https://www.google.com/cse/home?cx=011197018607028182644:qfobr3dlcra
 
Even if 600f is accurate, rather than by color, it is too high for most steels. Most carbon steels temper between 350f and 450f. There are exceptions, but a 600f will leave you with a very poor performing blade with very little edge retention.
 
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