carbon steel choice

C

Cameron Wilcox

Well-Known Member
I am curious as to what most makers prefer out of the 10xx steels: 1095, 1084, 1075.

Just curious for what to buy for my next orders from Aldo.

thanks
 
As a heat treater, I can say 1084. Excellent hardness and very predictable and repeatable results, with (so far) no breakage. I'm not a carbon user, so can't comment on that part.

Rob!
 
my 2 cents as I have made most of my knives out of carbon steel. 1095 is a great steel ONLY if heat treated properly and usually by a professional. 1084 is forgiving and makes a tough blade that is not hard to sharpen.
 
I like them all... :)
I try to find batches that have a low manganese content when possible... I've been using a lot of 1080 lately, and some 1095 from Aldo... 1095 needs a fast quench, really fast to get the most out of it (and a short soak at austinizing temp), I'd be using brine if I didn't have a small supply of parks 50. 1075 makes a great chopper or sword, 1095 is a bit better for smaller stuff like hunters. Though not technically a 10xx series steel, W2 is awesome, too. I'd looked for a supply for years, and now it is available for the first time in a long time... it is basically clean 1095 with a bit of vanadium added for grain refinement and wicked carbides.

1084 may be the easiest steel to heat-treat without fancy equipment, and makes a fine blade.
 
I like O1, it seems to have a little better edge-retention than 1084, is quite tough and not hard to sharpen. It's also available in a very wide range of sizes. 1084 definitely works, though.
 
Im a BIG fan of 5160. I had a large stock of it when I first started, and was able to HT with very few faiures. It is a fairly forgiving steel and makes a great tough blade!

God Bless and Good Luck!
Mike
 
I don't know by what you consider a problem for heat treating but the 10XX steels are about as simple as it gets. As a general rule you want to soak any hypereutectic steel, one with more that 77 points of carbon for about 5 minutes between upper and lower critical points (A1 and Acm) to get maximum carbon back into solution and to avoid grain growth as much as possible. Hypoeutectic steels only have to be heated long enough to make sure that the steel is heated all the way through. I'm giving 1080 a try because my next project is for a very large knife/short sword that I won't be able to get into my oven so will have to use a torch to temper it. I chose a 10XX series steel because they tend to be more forgiving when it comes to things like that.

I have found 9260 to be easy to heat treat. It's not quite as deep hardening as 5160 but it is treated just about the same. Deffinantly do triple tempering to convert retained austinite to martensite as high silicon content promotes the formation of retained austinite.

Doug
 
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