Need steel recommendation SOLVED

V

Verizon.net

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Dec 17, 2015
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i plan on make some whittling knives designed for carving hard wood like making fine art sculptures what would be the best steel for making them

please help it would be much appreciated if you did


thanks you guys
 
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Look up <whittling knives from drill bits> on youtube.

That is the video subject as I am not sure of the particular title.
Aside from that, I would think 1084 would be your best bet (if you did your own HT) since it sounds like you would be just starting out.

If you are outsourcing the HT, I would suggest O1 (60-61hrc or 1095 (59-60hrc)
 
I think most of that comes down to who is going to do the HT and what your equipment and experiences are. Like Bill said, 1084 if you haven't done this much before. Other good choices would be W2, 52100, A2, 15n20.
 
For a whittler, it is hard to beat 1095 or W2. They will get sharper and can be worked harder than most any steel available. Do a full draw temper on the spine or clay coat and quench for a hamon.

Use .060" stock, a FFG, and do the bevels after HT.
 
i what to make a knive designed for carving hard wood like making fine art sculptures
 
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Hard wood as in woodworking? Carving green wood? Processing dead wood? General camping/bushcraft/wilderness?
Chopping? Carving? Splitting?
 
I think he said it was for sculpting. 52100? O1? W2? One of a number of crazy PM tool steels?
 
I bet 90% of all carving knives and chisels are made from 1095 or W2. That is what I would recommend.
 
I merged the two identical threads you posted. Even if you posted more threads, you will still get suggestions of 1095 and W2.
 
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Asking what the best way to get to Japan from NY will yield multiple answers, including a boat, a plane, swimming, a helicopter and others...
The consensus would rest on a plane, would you still insist for other modes of travel?

W2 is fine grained, relatively simple in make up, and takes a keen edge while maintaining the ability to hold a high hardness.
 
A 16, most lads don't want to read a lot of brain numbing science, but that will be your friend here.

Most kids your age read only on their cell phone screens, which show only a couple lines of text at a time. That won't work for the amount of info you need. Either use a full size computer monitor or a printed book. I can tell from the lack of upper case letters and punctuation that you are using a hand held text device. The spelling is also a clue ( what when you mean want, and any thing for anything).

Start with the stickys and read all of them. Some of the info may not seem useful now, but will make sense later. In the stickys you will find Kevin Cashen's "Working with three steels". It is a great source of metallurgy info explaining the differences between steel types.

Get a few books on metallurgy from a library.


Read the hundreds of threads on Bladeforums about 1095, W2, 52100, and metallurgy.

The Bladeforums custom search engine is :
https://cse.google.com/cse/publicurl?cx=012217165931761871935:iqyc7cbzhci


I realize you don't know much about steel now, but you will know a lot more after reading the above info. Then you will know that the folks here who answered your questions have a total of hundreds of years of experience and will almost unanimously suggest 1095 or W2. If you want to spend a lot more money on Hitachi white paper steel shipped in from Germany or Japan, it will also make a great woodcarving knife or chisel ... but it is still just another version of 1095/W2.
 
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Lets leave the computer chair personal analysis out of it.

Verizon. You have been given some steels to consider and now you have something to research.
 
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