Opinions on cheaper forging steels.

[Allen Newberry]

What steels do you guys think give a good value (read cheap), are easy to work with, and are easy to heat treat?

 

[B Finnigan]

5160,1080,1084 and 1070 are a few that are easy to forge and grind and are very forgiving in heat treat. They also can be filed or ground without annealing after forging.

 

[jdm61]

you can get 1 1/2 x almost 1/4 5160 in the form of spring stock at most local steel suppliers. since it is already tempered, you probably want to anneal it. But it is relatively cheap, even counting the couple of bucks to cut it into transportable sizes

 

[B Finnigan]

I buy new leaf spring drop pieces for 20 cents a Lbs. at a spring shop that is two minutes from where I work. Most of the used pieces they just give me.

 

[Tommegow]

Fastenal sells O-1 & W-1 flat and round stock
Here is what they sell O-1 drill rods for. You can find stores on Web-site
1/2; Len: 36 Oil Hardened Drill Rod
Sku: 47774
Package Quantity: 1
Manufacturer: Fastenal Approved Vendor In-Store Item $8.24

 

[Justin.Mercier]

Just to expand on the fastenal O1, definately get it in the 1/2" round drill rod and not the 3/4" round drill rod if you're forging by hand, that extra quarter inch may not seem like much, but it takes about 10x the work to forge it down than the 1/2".

I'm just glad I found out that there is a fastenal 5 minutes from my house, because my local steel suplier doenst carry any alloy/spring steels. I use them for my blacksmithing needs, but they dont cut it for knives.