What Steel To Use

M

Marcel J.B. Morin

Joined
Sep 17, 1999
Messages
602
Okay, I have made my committment and ordered a new BIII grinder from Bader. Now I need to know what steel I should use to get started. Ats0-34 or D-2. Any and all advice from the more experienced makers will certainly be welcomed and appreciated. Thanks to all for your help.

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As with most things, there is no RIGHT answer for that question. There are several other factors to consider, such as: are you going to send out for heattreat? if not, what are your capabilities as far as heat treat. You can pick the most expensive steel made, but if it's not heat treated well, it's not going to perform.

What kind of knives are you planning to make? A good steel for a 4 inch drop point hunter, is not necessarily a good choice for a 18 inch bowie, no matter who heat treats it.

How important is it to you to recover your costs? Don't take this personally, but if you mess up 2 of 3 blades you grind and cant sell them, then it probably wouldn't pay you to start with cpm420v or the like. Been there, done that, know it's important.
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What type of finish do you plan to put on your knives? Some steels simply are not suitable for a ultra fine mirror polish, but work fine for a bead blasted tactical.

I started out grinding on 440c, because I was making 4 to 6 inch hunters with a mirror finish, and because I had access to a full heat treat facility with cryo. I still use and like it for some things, but as my other posts show, I'm looking to move into forging, which is causing me to reevaluate all these factors and look for a new steel to work with.

Best of luck with whatever you choose, and the most important thing is to DO IT. Then DO IT again
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Pawnbroker, I assume you have not sprang for a heat treating oven yet. I havnt either. I like the performance of 440-c for edge holding, ease of grinding satin or mirror finish ect. It has been around for a long time but so has ats-34 when Loveless brought it over from Japan in the 60s. D-2 is a great edge holder but a little brittle.The replacement for D-2 is CPM3V. It holds an edge better than D-2 and is 4 times tougher according to Ed Severson of Crucible Particle Metalurgy (CPM) It is also very flexable. The heattreat for all these alloy steels will need to be done by a trained professional or you have wasted you time and money let alone your reputation. Paul Bos in ElCajon California has done mine for years but you may find someone closer to home.Hope this helps, Bruce Bump
 
I prefer carbon steel.Most people can heattreat this with little more than a torch and practice,practice,practice.I have forged 52100 that is excellent for stock removal if you don't have a way to forge it yourself.5160 is a very good choice. Not the performance of 52100 but a little more forgiving of heattreat errors.
 
Hello,


my advice would be to start with a mild steel like 4140 ect.ect.......its not hardenable,,but it also is cheap..wont make a knife out of it,but its better to learn on Cheap steel than to worry about ruining good Blade steel during your learning curve.

Just learn the basics of grinding your Primary bevels first. and any scrap piece of steel can be used for this.

my .02

Allen blade
 
I guess I should have mentioned that several years ago, I was a very accomplished knifemaker. I strayed away due to business committments and now find myself with the time to start up where I left off. I plan on making mostly small hunters, to I guess the logical choice will be ATS-34. I welcome all comments and help I received on this topic. Thanks.

Marcel

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For small hunters, I'd go with D2, ATS34, and 01, since you can get such a wide range of hardnesses from it. Lately I've been playing with high carbons, and they're a lot more fun to forge than ATS34 or D2, but since you're doing stock removal, the air hardeners should work fine.

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Oz

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It's a waste of time and it annoys the pig."
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