Steel for swords

[Ghosh]

Respected members
I am new to swords .
Recently came to some swords made of 1085 , 5160 , 9260 and 52100 steel .
Which one is the best suited steel for a functionalI Indian talwar sword ?
Thank you.
Regards

 

[kvaughn]

I really like 52100 for hard use knives but am not sword savvy, so I'm not sure how it would work for an impact type blade.--KV

 

[Rhinoknives1]

Respected members
I am new to swords .
Recently came to some swords made of 1085 , 5160 , 9260 and 52100 steel .
Which one is the best suited steel for a functionalI Indian talwar sword ?
Thank you.
Regards

The Talwar was originally made of Wootz/Damascus Steel

 

[Ghosh]

Thank you for your kind responses .
Will anyone inform whether 52100 is the best among the said steels for an Indian talwar ?
Thank you

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

They all will work. They all have pros and cons. It would be wisest to pick the steel that best fits your forging/grinding/HT abilities.

52100 will get hard and sharp. At the length of a tulwar, it may need to be tempered down a good bit to avoid breaking.
5160 or 9260 will be very tough at normal hardness.
1085 is easy to work and HT. It is hard to beat as a general sword steel.

If I was making it, I would probably use 1070.

 

[Triton]

They all will work. They all have pros and cons. It would be wisest to pick the steel that best fits your forging/grinding/HT abilities.

52100 will get hard and sharp. At the length of a tulwar, it may need to be tempered down a good bit to avoid breaking.
5160 or 9260 will be very tough at normal hardness.
1085 is easy to work and HT. It is hard to beat as a general sword steel.

If I was making it, I would probably use 1070.

Agree with this. I suspect that for your average sword owner any decent carbon steel will work. The difference is what the sword maker is comfortable and skillful with. If your question was really "what is historically correct, the wootz, answer above is correct. So far as I know there is only one or two guys making it today.