mixing steel

Your pale blue on 5160 will give a tough but ductile edge. The HRc value will be in the low 50s. Aim for very pale yellow on the edge with blue on the back.
 
Also, with a username like that, you probably should be looking into supporting the site with the appropriate membership, one would think. There's some awfully good information on here in stickies and other threads and some very helpful folks. 5160 is a great steel, although not the best for hamons. Simple carbon steels are very inexpensive. There are tons of threads on here about (not) using junk metal.

Steel is itself an alloy, as I understand it. Different steels are different alloys, and it's not so simple as to just melt together two steels, even if you had the equipment for it to do a good job. Part of the difficulty with making alloys is that the ingredients, as it were, have different melting points. Even if that weren't the case, what makes alloys work as they do revolves around the proportions involved. Just melting together batches of mystery steel will accomplish nothing, because you have no idea what's going into it, or how the various elements will interact when they've reached their final proportion, even IF you had a really strong background in metallurgy, which it sounds like you don't have. No offense intended; I don't either. I suppose it could still be fun to attempt, and you might learn something, although chances are you'd learn that it's a waste of time. I haven't tried since it boils down to guesswork in the end, and I'd rather make the best blades that I can.

I tend to think it's always a good idea for a new member to spend time reading through the forum rules and stickies before they post anything, so they can avoid breaking forum rules (which your username in effect does if you don't have a Knifemaker's Membership, from what I recall), repeating questions that are regularly asked, and in general doing things that might, inadvertently, come off as disrespecting members of the community. That's just my personal opinion for how to best integrate into a community, and there are of course other ways to approach it. Even after a few years on this site, I still prefer to spend a lot more time reading and researching than asking questions. By and large, the information is out there to whatever question you can ask, and the more you learn, the more you'll be able to understand the answers to some questions, and to know enough to know that there are other questions you SHOULD be asking.

Since you seem to enjoy working metal, have you considered filling in your profile so you can connect with other people in your area, and attending a class or a hammer-in? That would seem to me to be a fun and informational way to advance your skills and knowledge.
 
Thank you crimson falcon, I did seem to offend some members. I'll do some reading. As for my username, I'm starting a website by that name for my knives. And I will get a full membership once it has taken off. Again thank all of you for your advice and blatant criticism. I hope to become a better bladesmith and learn what I can.
 
GlacierWolf,
Welcome,
I'm glad you decided to not answer your own question and listened to these other blade forger's that could help you.

A knife maker membership was only $60.00 when i purchased mine and you have already gotten much more than that out of this thread.
 
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