To harden low carbon or not.

D

Drew Dixon

Joined
Dec 10, 2017
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5
So, I made a 1 piece throwing knife out of low carbon strip (2w x 12LG x 1/4 thk) Heated it to dull orange and held for 2 to 3 minutes. Quenched in water. It's not hard. Dropped the tip onto a steel table and it folded 1/16. Should I forget this low carbon approach (I have used lawnmower blades also, no good). Would I be better of just using oil hardening flat ground instead of fighting this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Drew
 
Simply put my opinion is yes. I made several large throwing knives out of good steel they were cut from I believe it was 3/16 1084 I hardened then to around 55. The metal stood up well. I used 1 1/4"leather placed on each side of the handle for scales. There were balanced close to center both length and width wise. These were always thrown hanging on to the handles.
Frank
 
You mentioned throwing your knifes from their handle. Are they longer, heavier knifes? The ones me and my friends throw are small commercial SS cheapo's. They work great and we throw 'm from the blades tip.
 
Depending what you have for heat treating equipment, 1084 is probably a better choice than O1. It's less picky in heat treat and plenty tough if tempered properly. Canola oil would also be a better quench fluid. It's plenty fast enough for 1084, and it doesn't give all kinds of nasty toxic fumes when you stick a 1500 degree blade into it.
 
I used 5160 for throwers when I made a bath for some buckskinners. It is easy to HT and tough enough.
 
I just never could get those small throwers to travel. I believe we used to go for 20' or so for distance.
Frank
 
I made some throwers a while back out of 1084 because it’s all I had at the time. They ended up a little chippy so we re-tempered around 450-475 if I recall and they hold up great now.
 
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