Would this be a good test?

[R.C.Reichert]

Recently I've tried making some flint and steel fire strikers from some different steels. I tried some 1095, O1, and some type of spring steel I found at the place where I work. What I noticed is that if you don't quench in the right medium, you get very little sparks. 1095 needs to be water/brine quenched (a really fast oil would probably work) to get the steel to throw good sparks when struck. I tried quenching the 1095 in canola oil (a relatively thin oil heated to 120F) and even though it got hard enough to skate a file across it and had that "glassy" sound, it was not hard enough to throw very many sparks. When I quenched the O1, in canola oil, it sparked just great. The other steel from my experimentation is obviously very similar to the 1095 as it needed a water quench to get it hard enough to spark well.
It would seem, that even though the steel "seemed" to get hard, if it didn't get hard enough to generate lots of sparks when struck with a piece of flint, it probably was not the right quench medium.
Anyways, based on the "spark-ability" of certain steels with different quench mediums, I was wondering if this would be a good test for blade steels? Perhaps to help determine the quench-ability of so-called mystery steels?

 

[delbert ealy]

I have made a few strikers and from my tests 1095 is the best steel for strikers(w-1 too). I quench in parks #50 with no temper and the shoot sparks like a firesteel. Any steel with chromium doesnt work well, even the bit that O-1 has seems to interfere. The harder the steel the more sparks. Stick with 1095 or W-1 and quench in #50 or brine.
Del
As for a test for knife steels, I am not so sure, good simple steels that are very hard seem to work the best.

 

[R.C.Reichert]

I have made a few strikers and from my tests 1095 is the best steel for strikers(w-1 too). I quench in parks #50 with no temper and the shoot sparks like a firesteel. Any steel with chromium doesnt work well, even the bit that O-1 has seems to interfere. The harder the steel the more sparks. Stick with 1095 or W-1 and quench in #50 or brine.
Del
As for a test for knife steels, I am not so sure, good simple steels that are very hard seem to work the best.

Thanks for the reply. I was kinda wondering how the chromium content would affect it. Along the lines of knife blades, I was thinking that if the steel did not get hard enough to throw sparks well, it probably meant that it had some pearlite in it that did not get hard. I know I made some 3/16" blades of 1095 and I quenched them in canola oil (that was before I knew about specific quenching oils such as Parks #50). Thinking back, they probably did not get as hard as they should have in the quench. I bet if I were to try to strike one with a flint, it probably wouldn't throw sparks well. Perhaps an indication I guess. Thanks again.