normalizing, soaking...what is this stuff?

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MatthewVLiles

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Jan 25, 2014
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I read Ed Flowers' book years ago and just recently read the complete Blade smiths Forging your Way to Perfection. What I want to know is all this "soaking and normalizing" necessary when you forge a blade? Also, can anyone recommend some good steel to start out with? I have some 1095 scrap pieces that I am going to play around with...If you can recommend any other book as well it would be appreciated. Thanks
 
5160 and 1080 are the beginer steels for beginers ! After forging the steel microstructure is different in different parts of the blade. You normalize it to get the structure the same in all parts of the blade .For high carbon steels you soak or hold the steel at high temperatures to dissolve carbides.
 
Yep. Normalizing reduces stress, and soaking helps turn as much austentite in to marstentite as you can, which greatly improves wear resistance.
 
Yes when you work the steel like you do in forging with the multiple heats you do a number on the steel internally . So after your done with all your work that you plan to do on the anvil . That's when you apply all the info you read in the book regarding normalizing . This is a critical step and cannot be skipped. Another good steel for forging would be 1084 due to the fact that you can heat treat with decent results in your forge. Maybe NJ Steel Baron would have some in stock.
 
O-1 is a personal favorite I find it is a pretty common steel and holds an edge well. Definitely not as flexible after tempering and heat treat but that's fine for a rigged knife. It can be somewhat difficult to work with and might need to be annealed before starting. Hope it helps
 
1095 requires a short soak to get the carbides to go into solution. A better name for normalization might be grain refinement, as the finer, more uniform the grain structure in your knife the tougher it will be, up to a point, at a given hardness.
 
A very tangible benefit of normalizing cycles is that your blade will be much less likely to warp in the quench. That saves work!
And yes, it has a big effect on grain size and thus potentially makes for a much stronger blade.
1080 is good because it's a "eutectoid" steel. That means due to its carbon content its correct hardening temperature is just above the non-magnetic point, making it pretty easy to get your quench temp right. It does well without a long soak too. When you start going into more or less carbon than the 80 points that 1080 has, hardening temperature increases by 50-100 degrees, and additional alloying ingredients such as chromium will mean a longer soak time is needed.
 
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