Steel type question

[Knowharm]

I was given a good bit of 22mnb5 steel. Google shows zero results in a search for “22mnb5 + knife”. It seems to be a high carbon steel. Would anyone be willing to tell me if this makes for a good knife and or any tips or lessons learned with this steel I’d greatly appreciate it!

 

[M. Johnwell]

Welcome to the forum!

Looking at the composition, it’s a low carbon steel. 0.19-0.25% C and 1.1-1.4% Manganese. Trace amounts of boron. Not really enough additives to get it hard enough for knives.

You could try pack carburizing it or possibly nitriding it to get the surface hard after grinding, but that would be a difficult process for a novice knife maker.

I’d recommend getting some 1084 steel in knife sized sheets and go from there. The 22MnB5 would be good for practicing grinding bevels but not much else.

 

[Knowharm]

Thank you very much for the info!