O-1, A-2, D-2, 5160, 1095, CMP 3V/4V? What kind of steel should I be using?

ColsonCustoms

ColsonCustoms

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Oct 19, 2015
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Hello, I'm a beginning knife maker and have kinda hit a rut. I've done a fair bit of reading and understand the basics of the various steels but am having trouble gauging what people are interested in. As far as I can tell, for most applications, the O-1 or 5160(for longer blades) looks like it would be about the best choice. People seems to like the newest, hardest, most expensive steel on the market though, even if the differences are nominal.
 
As a new maker you better start with 1084 or 5160.

It cheap, easy to find, easy to grind and most importantly, it is one of the most forgiving steel to HT. 1084 also suit on every type of knife from slicer to chopper...

Never look down it just because it labeled as "beginner" steel... when done right it just an excellent steel that has been used among the best blade smith in the world...
 
You should use the steel that best matches the intended use of the blade, assuming that you are capable of heat treating it properly.
 
If you are selling to people I would say give them what they want. Life's easier that way! Unless they want to use it in saltwater and specify 1095 or something that will rust like crazy.
 
If you want the opinion of someone who buys around 20 knives a year, and has for the last 30 years, I don't buy hardly anything carbon steel anymore, as I hate patina and can't stand the upkeep.

3V is my minimum, for some reason, I don't have the powder rust issues with it that simpler carbon steels demonstrate.

D2 is an excellent steel, not easy to finish out, but "almost" stainless.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
You should definitely be using Unobtanium, it beats all other steels by a very wide margin.
 
I'm going to disagree with several here. Pick a steel and stick with it for a while, especially if you are forging and heat treating yourself. Bouncing around from steel to steel does not give you the opportunity to develop the best performance in any of them. That said, I did change steels for marketing reasons but, ended up with a big boost in performance when I switched from 440C to CPM-S35VN. For a carbon steel, I would recommend 1075 from Aldo. It has great performance characteristics and if you get bored, you can experiment with hamons. I would stay away from 5160 unless you are forging down round bar. The flat stock is not held to high standards of purity and often has imperfections.

Bob
 
I've just started selling a few knives, four so far, but only knife makers seem to know anything about steel alloy's. Some of the old timers among my friends and customers know they prefer carbon to stainless. Occasionally someone has heard of one or two alloy's but they don't really know anything much about them.

Don't get hung up on trying to brag about this alloy or that alloy to your customers. Just listen to the others above and talk about alloy's with the other knife makers. Performance means more to customers than what alloy we use.
 
Thanks for all the replies. Been working with some 5160, O-1 and 1095. I agree that the 5160 does not seem to be of very good quality. I have ended up with some deep pitting and funny squiggles in a few blades after heat treating. I'm pretty happy with the O-1 so far. May look into 52100 next and see how I like that.
 
Personally I love O1 steel. My other go to carbons would be W2 and and 15N20. O1 and 12N20 get a lot of hate, but I personally think they are lovely steels to work with.

And yes, 5160 is really falling out of favor. it just doesnt have enough carbon to get really good and hard. Where you owuld use 5160, i would suggest you get some of Aldo's 80crv2.
 
5160 does fine for axes but not knives .
Knives - start with 1084
Damascus - 1084 with 15n20
Axes - 5160 , 4140

These are all good starters ,easy to forge or HT.
 
I'm about to switch to stainless. I love carbon steel but have been putting off the stainless for way to long. Going out to the shop and finding rusty finger prints on blades was the last straw. Now forging will still be 52100 and W2 but I think most other things are going to be stainless. AEB-L for general use and then eather Elmax or CPM S35V for the higher end stuff. But custom orders get what the customer wants so it's good to be flexable.
 
W2 if im doing clay coat and quench line O1 is my STD. carbon PD1 higher alloy carbon then XHP for my go to SS tho i used alot of cpm154 for years. those are my go to steels that said i have worked with many different alloys and thats all part of the fun when you have a kiln and LN tank in house
 
I have been making mostly medium to large hunting/camp knives and some smaller neck knives. Stock removal. I'm doing a few kitchen knives at the moment as well. I'm pretty happy with the O-1 so far. Probably will stick with that for a while.
 
ColsonCustoms said:
I have been making mostly medium to large hunting/camp knives and some smaller neck knives. Stock removal. I'm doing a few kitchen knives at the moment as well. I'm pretty happy with the O-1 so far. Probably will stick with that for a while.
Click to expand...

OK, LOL So..... What was the point of your question? :)
 
52100 is a great steel, I forge my blades out of roller bearings. But that being said it is not a good backyard heat treating steel. It needs some thermal cycles and a hold time at the corect temp. The only reasion I bring this up is becaus you did not say what kind of heat treating setup you had.
 
cpm 154 for hunting knife 6" or less,
5160/cpm3v for camp knife or chopper,
aeb-l for good kitchen knife

If I were to offer knives I think a list like this is a good place to start,these are the kind of knives I am interested in to cover the basics,after that of course the sky is the limit for example I would like to try rwl34 as an upgrade of cpm154,and so on ,just my .02
 
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