6150 testing

Chris Railey

Chris Railey

Well-Known Member
I agreed to do some testing on this steel which I have never used for yosam. He sent me enough to test because he wants the info to be shared. I respect that especially because he does not know what the results will be and he has a lot of it to sell. Yosam has been patient as I have been busy lately but it is raining like a pregnant cow peeing on a flat rock here so I cannot go fishing today...So testing it is.

I have partnered with my friend @tkroenlein who has access to Rockwell testing. I sent him some of the steel to test as well. He will post his info here as well when he has time.

Now for a disclaimer, Yes there are better people on this forum alone to do this testing but if I were them I would not do so for free. My testing and opinion are free. I have and will not receive any payment from yosam. This seemed like a cool project to me so I am doing it. My opinion is mine alone, period.

My first victim will be this bar .186 thick (according to my calipers) 12 inches long and two inches wide. I have a bushcraft machete prototype that has been swimming around in my head for a while so that is what I am going to make. This bar is a little short and wide for that project so first I am going to see if I can upset the steel from the side and make the bar narrower and thicker then I will draw it out to blade length.
At the same time I am going to do some coupon testing in my HT oven. People who are smarter than me have suggested a 30 min soak at 1650f will yeild 60HRC with a 350f temper. I will start there. The soak seems long to me but the source knows his stuff so I will go with it for now.

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opaul said:
Thanks for doing this.
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Most welcome. Its just a cool project to me. My initial thought is this stuff will be good for choppers, machetes, maybe swords and perhaps tool blades? Maybe an adze or the like. I am also using my hammer more than my press so we can get an idea of how it moves. My press has caused my hammer skills to go stale, I can already tell.
 
Hammer? What's a hammer used for around a forge? {grinning as somebody who's just got a new press:)

We're looking forward to the test results. I know what you mean about the time it takes for good valid tests - that's why they cost money to have done by professionals. YOUR tests will be just as valid - or perhaps more so since you're testing the same way rest of us would be using the metal.
 
We are now at 15 inches long and 1 3/4 wide about the same thickness Or a little more as in the start. I went slow. It moves fine, no cracks and I forged it just like any other steel. I ran out of propane so I had to stop while I search for a tank with some gas in it.

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Chris Railey said:
That is kind of where I was coming from. A forge level testing more so than lab testing which would be more valid (lab testing)scientifically speaking. Most of us here are heat beat and repeat so...
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Yup, that's the more interesting part of it to me. What's a real practical usage of this steel. I think for most purposes it's 55-58 HRC with great toughness. The data sheets seem to top out there at about 1600F austenitizing temp.
 
Coupon testing done. I took this piece as received (no refinement done by me) and heated it to 1650f held for 30min and quenched in heated canola oil. Judge the grain for yourself. It skated a file well too...that is the extent of my hardness testing ability. Other than my fly press snapped it fairly easy.
 

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Got it forged to shape and its air cooling from a normalizing cycle. I will post pics shortly. I did not see any big difference in forging this steel vs any other steel I think it moved well. Its been a while since I forged a big ole knife this close to shape. It was fun.
We ended up about 16.5 inches long a little over 1.5 inches wide and At its thickest close to 1/4 inch.

Profile cleaned up a little. You get the idea.
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Now that I have thought about it some I think I am going to cut the spear point tip off square and add a chisel grind there instead of a tip. I think a wood chisel may be more useful in bushcraft than a spear point tip. What do you think?
 
Looks good shape to me.

On the grain - from looking at photos they look like fine grain but it's really hard to tell from a photo. When you look at it does it look like a file or drill bit broken? That's how I check for fine grain - look at coupon and a broken file side by side. File MUST be one of the older high carbon steel types, not the new cheap surface hardened files.
 
For no refinement at all from me the grain looked really good to my eye and under magnification. I tried taking a picture through my opti-visor but it did not work. I am going to do more coupon testing with some normalizing steps but for a one shot deal it looked good. If I were doing a stock removal knife the results would make me happy. However. as we (the forum) have discussed before, even SR knives can benefit from normalizing heats.
 
Sometimes I think the lower carbon stuff kinda breaks and looks like tempered steel (like yours here) with a more "torn" appearance. I wouldn't expect a chalk like appearance myself. I am often wrong about these things.
 
I put the coupon in a fly press jig I have for cold bending 90s in steel. Snapped easily enough in the non tempered state. I am interested in what happens when I try to snap a tempered piece. I bet it just bends to 90.
 
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