Steel question?

T

Tin.Man

Joined
Sep 5, 2010
Messages
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Out of idle curiosity more than anything, which steel do you think would be tougher?

Pre requisites,

1, 3/16" to 1/4" thick
2, chopping and slashing style work

Steel options

A2, 01, S7, 4140, 5160.

All heat treated to roughly 55-56ish.

So between the above steels at that hardness which do you think would be the toughest?

Appreciate your time and thoughts on this.
 
4140 is not a blade steel.

The rest will all make a tough brush cutter blade. Depending on the blade shape and style, S7 is probably the toughest under severe abuse. A2 is also tough.
 
4140 may not be a blade steel by common designation but its used by Lamson Sharp in their Fire, Silver and others lines of excellent forged culinary cutlery. I haven't used it my self but it sounds like tough stuff and works well in their knives.
 
I know it has been used for some cutting blades in industry, but it is not a normal steel for hand made knives. It is also very low in corrosion resistance, IIRC.

Is the 4140 in Lamson knives you refer to the blade or the bolsters?

4140 has .40% carbon, high Manganese, and about 1% chromium. That will make a tough steel, but will not allow a hard enough blade for most knife tasks. 4140's big advantage is how well it woks. You can forge the heck out of it. It is great for hammers. anvils, hardy tools, etc.
 
A quick search of the Lamson website does not indicate type of blade steel. On the paring knife they do indicate a "Super Alloy American steel with a 60? rockwell" if this is the case definitely not 4140. I have a query in to them for blade steel type.

Of those steels for a home shop heat treat sans HT oven I would pick 5160. Easy to forge, forgiving in the HT and I have used one for more than 10 years in the yard with great results.
 
bladsmth said:
I know it has been used for some cutting blades in industry, but it is not a normal steel for hand made knives. It is also very low in corrosion resistance, IIRC.

Is the 4140 in Lamson knives you refer to the blade or the bolsters?

4140 has .40% carbon, high Manganese, and about 1% chromium. That will make a tough steel, but will not allow a hard enough blade for most knife tasks. 4140's big advantage is how well it woks. You can forge the heck out of it. It is great for hammers. anvils, hardy tools, etc.
Click to expand...

Stacy,
My Apologies,
The steel they use is 4116 steel for there forged cutlery line. You'd think I would have gotten that right since I sell a few of their knives. If you like traditional European bolstered integral Chef knives, I put these against anything coming out of Germany these days. Their Silver, Fire & Earth lines are excellent!
 
Laurence,

Yeah that is what I found too. Received this email from them,

We use 4116 Stainless from Solingen Germany for our Lamson forged knives. We also use BD1 on our Vintage Series.
On foodservice knives we use 420 stainless.
We use other specialty steels on smaller projects and private label.
I hope that helps.
 
A C Richards said:
Laurence,

Yeah that is what I found too. Received this email from them,

We use 4116 Stainless from Solingen Germany for our Lamson forged knives. We also use BD1 on our Vintage Series.
On foodservice knives we use 420 stainless.
We use other specialty steels on smaller projects and private label.
I hope that helps.
Click to expand...

They do a great job of HTing all of there knives and I find all of their lines to be an excellent value in a domestically made knife.
 
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