Super steels for large blades

hank_rearden

hank_rearden

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Jun 7, 2002
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barring the cpm s3v which i understand is used to make katanas and long knives, are the other super steels being used to make blades longer than 10" or is there a drawback to them? are sword makers better off using the older ingot tool steels?
 
For swords, the steels don't have the ability to handle the impacts. But if the sword never impacts anything, it wouldn't matter. The biggest problem would be the time and expense to acquire and grind such large pieces of these steels. For a chopper, if you only dealt with lumber, they would probably be okay with careful use. Less than ideal conditions with large rocks, hard knots, cutting close to the ground and such would not be too great, imo. For a long kitchen slicer, they'd be fine.
 
so you're saying the basic requirements for a small slicer and a long chopper are different. that makes sense to me.
 
I am pretty sure he ment that different steels are better in different roles. I dont think one would argue S90V is better in a slicer than it is a chopper.
 
Super steels? 5160 at its best HT.



On a side note i do fancy a compact chopper made out of Elmax.
 
How about the Shempp-designed Rock Salt in H-1? That is a big knife and that steel is not only rustproof but also incredibly tough.
 
I am curious if anyone has experience using mangalloy for sword blades. I have some 1/4" thick CPM3V that I was going to use for a katana and possibly some medieval shapes but I am concerned about the toughness of the 3V. I have done some machining of mangalloy and it is pretty impressive stuff in terms of impact toughness and can get up to about 54 rockwell. I would assume that edge retention would be very good as it is highly resistant to abrasion.(although sharpening it will be an exercise in patience) I may order a bar and do some impact tests to compare to the 3v but would be interested to hear from anyone with experience with it.
 
[video=youtube;rJXP0vR4hnI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJXP0vR4hnI[/video]

Dan Keffeler makes impressive 3V stuffs.
 
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