Where is knife making steel descrptions

N

natenaaron

Member
I know it is here. I saw it yesterday. I am sure it is right in front of me but I just spent a long time trying to refind it. Can some one please point me to it?
 
Could you possibly mean the heat treating sticky that's on the Heat Treating Forum below? As far as a list of steels that are useful to make knives with, I don't recall seeing that. If you let us know what your level of expertise is, how you want to make blades and what equipment you have to use we can certainly direct you to some good steels to use.

Doug
 
That's what I want to do but needed the list of 10## steel list to ask questions about. I know I saw it yesterday.
I am a complete beginner.
 
Ok, the best steels for beginners in the 10XX category would be 1084 or 1080. If you have a high temperature oven for austenizing then there is also 1095 but that also depends on the source. Another is 80CrV2 which is sometimes refered to as 1080+. What questions do you need to ask about them.

Doug

Pardon my Duhhh moment but there is also 1075 or what one supplier calls 1075/1080.
 
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Thanks, Rudy. I have to admit that I've never seen those stickies before. I'm sure many people appreciated that.

Doug
 
Thanks, Rudy. I knew I wasn't going insane.

Thanks for the beginner information Doug, you answered most of my questions. So here is my question that are left, why isn't O1 mentioned in there or does it have a different number.

On the 10XX information, what do you mean by high temp over? What is the benefit of the 1084 over the 1075? Is this where the trade between flexibility and edge holding is made?

In Kitchen knives, Chef down to pairing, what is a good steel? Kitchen knives are what I am aiming to make mostly.

In sanmai blades I know you want high carbon in the middle of the sandwich but is the outside material not as picky as long as it is a low carbon? I know this is advanced but I want to work up to it.
 
O-1 is an AISI, American Iron and Steel Institute, code. Those are codes that indicate the steels quench medium, such as O for oil or W for water, use, such as D for die steel, or content, such as L for low alloy or M for molybdenum alloy. The codes that are generally used that are just four or five numbers, such as 1084 or 52100 are SAE codes, which stands for Society of Automotive Engineers. The last two or three numbers in the series indicate the carbon content. The first two are going to indicate that alloy so with 52100 the 5 indicated that it's a chromium alloy. The 2 indicates that it's chromium content is ~2% and the 100 indicates ~100 points of carbon, or about 1%.

Now there are other code systems out there. The A36 that you can pick up at the hardware stores is not air quenching. As a matter fact, the stuff will hardly harden at all. It has to do with physical characteristics of the steel like the stresses it will take.

Doug
 
You're welcome.
I suggest you bookmark anything of interest, You can't absorb it all in one session. If you're really interested and you should be, you'll be referering to HT info constantly. Pick one or two steels and get proficient with them.

Here is a little more of the story...but remember to use this info as a guideline, nothing is written in stone. If you ask, you'll get as many answers as there are makers usually. Kevin Cashen is a great resource for HT.

http://ajh-knives.com/metals.html#metal3

Rudy
 
Thanks Doug and Rudy. I had no idea those numbers acctually meant something.

I am going to disappear into the forum and read some books.
 
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