S7 questions

Rick Lowe

Rick Lowe

Joined
Jan 6, 2005
Messages
1,331
My son bought some flat stock S7 and wants to make some blades with it. Having never used it and really never heard about it, I've done a little research as to characteristics and heat treat. Seems to be a lot like 5160, but maybe tougher. I found several references for heat treat, but maybe not consistent for blades. Do any of you guys use it? If you do or have, what did you think? Last question would be how to best heat treat it for blade usage? Since he has it, might as well find a way to use it.
Thanks!
Rick
 
Last edited:
I made me a chopper from it a couple years ago. I austenized at 1750 degrees and tempered to 56RC (don't remember the temper temp). It has held up great for a beater chopper. S7 is a very tough steel with an OK wear resistance. There are several other guys here using it for blades, Scott Gossman and Daniel Fairly are two that quickly come to mind.
 
S7 is one of my favorite all time steels especially for knives that need to be tough.

The toughness is off the charts and at 58 RC the edge holding is pretty good, almost as good as A2 in my opinion.

I like to use around 1725-1750 for 30 minutes soak time, plate quench and temper at 400 twice for two hours. This should give you about 58 RC.

I hear you can hit 60-62 RC with an oil quench, that should temper to about 59-60 or so at 400F. All the data I find suggests to oil quench until black then finish in the plates.

I plate quench as I find the combination of insane toughness and good edge holding is great with my "straight out of the textbook" standard method.

S7 takes a good edge and is easy to sharpen.

You are right about it being a bit like 5160 but I feel it comes "cleaner" and inclusion free. Of course 5160 can hit a bit higher RC but with the typical sacrifice in toughness. S7 is also stable during heat treat and somewhat easy to work with. The only downside is the price if you want the toughest most reliable steel you can get.


Tech/HT Data

http://www.buffaloprecision.com/data_sheets/DSS7TSbpp.pdf

http://cartech.ides.com/datasheet.aspx?i=101&E=114

good link to in depth information http://www.cintool.com/catalog/Shock_resistant/S7.pdf
 
Last edited:
Thanks Daniel! That's just the stuff I needed. This info will let me and my son work the S7 and expect good results.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top