What's the the best steel for.........

B

Bluegrasser12345

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Apr 3, 2007
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I have never built a knife before but after reading around on these forums I would like to give it a try.

My question is what would be the best steel for a beginner like me. I would like to make a really heavy duty fixed blade for woods use, probably about 11" overall with a 6"-ish blade that can really take abuse, but also take a decent edge and be fairly easy to sharpen and work. I would not be doing the heat treat, I would probably just send it to Paul Bos, so that's not really an issue. I also want something that's pretty affordable, and available in 1/4 or more stock.

I may be trying to have my cake and eat it too, but I figured if I was going to get answers this was the place to come.

Thanks!

Also, what's the best place to buy good steels at pretty good prices?
 
I'd go with 5160. It's a tough steel that isn't hard to work or heat treat. It's a good place to start.

Gene
 
I think 5160 is a bit out of my price range right now, I need something pretty cheap. I was looking at some 1075. It is dirt cheap, and I think it would do pretty good.

What's the deal on 1075? Also, what would be a good Rockwell Hardness for a larger hard use fixed blade made from it?
 
Paul Bos heat treats high carbon and tool steels? I though he just does stainless.

I'd vote for 5160 also, you could probably get a drop from a auto spring shop for free or for very little $
 
Bos does air hardening steels only, IIRC.

One can get 5160 dirt cheap from Sheffield Knife Supply, among others. They have an online catalog you could check. www.sheffieldsupply.com

Delbert Ealy might HT it. He does oil-hard steels for hire.
 
5160 was the first thing that came to my mind based on your requirements as well. All the common low alloy steels should be dirt cheap, or comparable to the point it won't make any difference for one piece. The shipping will probably cost more than the steel itself.

Just checked Sheffield's catalog- a 5160 bar that's 1/4"x 1 1/2"x 24" is 7 bucks. They also carry it 2" wide, and it gets proportionally cheaper if you get a longer bar.
 
Bluegrasser12345, just to even things out I will say go with the 1075. Oh heck it isn't just to be fair it is also because it is the simplest and all around easiest steel to work with in your position. You already find the economics preferable over 5160. About the only thing 1075 will not be easier at is quenching. 5160 will harden fairly easy in comparison since the 1075 will require a faster quench to fully harden, but that is counterbalanced by 5160 higher hardening heat and the soak time it will benefit from. You will have to quench it faster but 1075 will only need to be heated to a little above nonmagnetic and then quenched in order to reach great potential.

58-59HRC would make a really nice chopper out of 1075.

Of course none of this matters if you farm out the heat treatment so then you can use any steel you and your heat treater likes.

Hey I am just tickled to death that as a newbie you are asking about real steel and not wonding how to heat treat old lawn mower blades or some other scrap. Congratulations on your wisdom in starting with real steel :thumbup:
 
By the way, Kevin. I've got a giant pile of old mower blades sitting around, and was gonna ask you to heat treat them for me! :p :D
 
Hah... I'M using house piling structural bolts :D

Then again it's just practice in turning rounds into flats, and has the advantage over Rebar in that it actually can harden :D so the KSOs that result will at least hold an edge.


Back on topic. I'm a propodent of the 5160. easy to work, simple to obtain from suspension shops, easy to quench.
 
1075 or 5160.
1075 is the eutectic and has the lowest quench temp and does not require any soak time, so a torch and a magnet will do fine for HT.
5160 is fairly deep hardening and works in most any oil, but requires more control in the HT temps.

I'd go with 1075.
Stacy
 
Hi,
I'd recomend saw blade. Headsaws, lumber mill steel.
I've made a few.
This picture is of a pretty big one, 72",and they are rare. 52" ones are still around. They're 1/4" thick. I forge them to what I need.
Smaller 24" blades 3/16" are around. Just have to find a mill and you'll have all the best bush knife steel you will ever need.
When your done hardening and tempering turn the spine blue with a torch.

headsaw_600.jpg


http://www.caribooblades.com
 
Interestingly, I acquired a head saw blade, 5 1/2 feet in diameter. Not knowing what it was, other than that it had toothed inserts, I sent a piece out for analysis. Turned out that the blade was 8620. That test saved me a lot of time, money and upset customers. Using blades is fine, as long as you research them and know what they are.

Just because it's a saw blade doesn't make it L6.

Gene
 
Thanks for all the info!

Now you've got me wondering what are some good air hardening steels that Bos could treat that would fit those same specs? And who are some other very well known heat treaters that would do a good job and could possibly do 5160 or 1075?

Also from looking around it seems that 1075 and 1080 are regarded as the same steel. Is this true?

And I'm just curious, what's all the equipment that i would need to do a good heat treat to 1075?

Thanks again!
 
Gene Martin said:
Interestingly, I acquired a head saw blade, 5 1/2 feet in diameter. Not knowing what it was, other than that it had toothed inserts, I sent a piece out for analysis. Turned out that the blade was 8620. That test saved me a lot of time, money and upset customers. Using blades is fine, as long as you research them and know what they are.

Just because it's a saw blade doesn't make it L6.

Gene
Click to expand...

Your right of course. A simple spark test with a grinder can tell me most of what I want to know.. If you can get some it is quality tool and knife stock, free of charge with just a little more time and sweat spent.
a dissatisfied customer, never.

http://www.caribooblades.com
 
Bluegrasser12345 said:
Thanks for all the info!

Now you've got me wondering what are some good air hardening steels that Bos could treat that would fit those same specs? And who are some other very well known heat treaters that would do a good job and could possibly do 5160 or 1075?

Also from looking around it seems that 1075 and 1080 are regarded as the same steel. Is this true?

And I'm just curious, what's all the equipment that i would need to do a good heat treat to 1075?

Thanks again!
Click to expand...

Well there are always the old standbys, 440c, ATS34, BG42(?), S30V, and others like A2 and D2 but these steels are generally quite a bit more expensive than their simpler cousins like 5160 and 1075/1080/1084. I'm thinking though that these simpler steels would better fit your original specifications better than the stainless and semi stainless steels.

When a steel is called somthing like 1080 the actual carbon percentage may vary from .75 to .85, and may even vary more than that. Specific melts though call for particular amounts of other alloying elements. A steel sold as 1075 may have more (or less) manganese than a steel specifically made to be sold as 1080. So while a steel sold as 1080 may actually have .75% carbon it's not the same steel. In a similar vein 1084 and 1095 may actually end up having the same amount of carbon when analyzed but these are very different steels. For all intents an purposes however 1075/1080/1084 could all be pretty much heat treated in the same manner and are all good choices.

As far as heat treating 1075, you could actually do a fair job, with some practice, with a regular hardwood charcoal fire rigged with a simple blower of some kind and some decent heated quenching oil. There is a wealth of information here on heat treating and you could well end up building a forge of some kind or even using a torch if you choose to try heat treating yourself.
 
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