Steel Selection - 52100 vs O-1 vs 15n20

B

Bamph

Joined
Aug 9, 2015
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46
I'm getting ready to start my next batch of drop point hunters. These will be knives number about 20 to 40 for me. In the past I've used 15n20 (which is a pain to work with until annealed) and O-1 (like butter and no warping). My question is: Is it worth it to switch to 52100. The steel will be from Aldo, so I think it needs some extra heat treating steps to handle the spheroids. Also, I'm not ready to upgrade from my canola oil. It was fine for the O-1 and 15n20. Will it work with 52100? I have been happy with the knives I've been making, but a bit more edge retention would be nice. Do I need to worry about extra decarburization because of the extra heating steps? I have a Paragon furnace so I can control temps pretty well.

Thanks,
Ben
 
I think it’s best to stick with what you know, O-1 is a good steel.

I do like 52100 but find the heat treat a little tricky.

You might consider trying A2, not too hard to dial in the heat treat and it has higher wear resistance and toughness over O-1.

Hoss
 
The 15n20 from Aldo grinds and drills great. I had 62.5 with 300 degrees temper just using my forge and canola with no extra normalizing. Its nothing like 80CrV2 from Aldo.
 
Has anyone ever tested that Devin? Not questioning you, your work is fantastic. Just curious as o1 has less alloying so logically wouldnt it be tougher while a2 having more alloying has more wear which has been tested and proofed.

Love to hear your or Larrins thoughts on this.
 
Thanks everyone for the good advice. I think I will stick with O-1 for now. One thing that would make changing difficult is that I don't have my own hardness tester, so I have to rely on other people to check my work.

Ben
 
Tin.Man said:
Has anyone ever tested that Devin? Not questioning you, your work is fantastic. Just curious as o1 has less alloying so logically wouldnt it be tougher while a2 having more alloying has more wear which has been tested and proofed.

Love to hear your or Larrins thoughts on this.
Click to expand...
https://www.crucible.com/eselector/prodbyapp/tooldie/ketos.html
https://www.crucible.com/eselector/prodbyapp/tooldie/airkoolt.html
https://www.alphaknifesupply.com/Pictures/Info/Steel/O1-DS-Latrobe.pdf
https://www.alphaknifesupply.com/Pictures/Info/Steel/A2-DS-Latrobe.pdf
 
In the graph by Latrobe it shows that O-1 is tougher than A-2, however, if you look at the numbers on the same data sheets, A-2 is twice as tough.

All the data that I’ve seen comparing the wear resistance shows that A-2 is more wear resistant. My own experience confirms this.

Hoss
 
Tin.Man said:
Has anyone ever tested that Devin? Not questioning you, your work is fantastic. Just curious as o1 has less alloying so logically wouldnt it be tougher while a2 having more alloying has more wear which has been tested and proofed.

Love to hear your or Larrins thoughts on this.
Click to expand...

Alloying in the matrix can increase toughness. Higher alloying leading to higher carbide volume can decrease toughness. These are general statements, and not meant as one size fits all.
 
I didn't even look at the pointless chart at the beginning of the Latrobe datasheets. Look at the toughness measurements on the second page of each.
 
I'm curious why A2 should be tougher than O1? Isn't the matrix with higher volume of harder carbide = less tough?

And those silly Latrobe chart are confusing as hell... they listed O1 tougher than A2 but the number on impact test just tell the opposite...
 
shqxk said:
I'm curious why A2 should be tougher than O1? Isn't the matrix with higher volume of harder carbide = less tough?

And those silly Latrobe chart are confusing as hell... they listed O1 tougher than A2 but the number on impact test just tell the opposite...
Click to expand...

Alloy steels are tougher than carbon steels.
L-6 is tougher than 1075, 80crv2 is tougher than 1080, 5160 is tougher than 1060, O-1 is tougher than 1095, even W-2 is tougher than W-1. Hardness and carbide volume are the biggest predictors of toughness, alloy additions were designed to make steels tougher.

Hoss
 
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