epicknives
Member
I have been tasked with making a katana for a friend and all I have is 1080, would that be good to use for forging and creating a good hamon.
katana steel
- Thread starter epicknives
- Start date
kevin - the professor
Well-Known Member
1080 is not ideal, too much manganese.
contact Aldo at njsteelbaron.com and get w2 or low manganese 1075. That is, of course, just my opinion, but the part about manganese is fact. I am not trying to promote Aldo, though he is a friend. It is just that he understands the needs of knifemakers so he put together a pour of w2 (which was basically not being made anymore). Similarly, some foundry was going to sell one of the big steel dealers an ingot of 1075 and they goofed it and did not put enough manganese in it. So, the ingot was out of spec for the steel company. Aldo knew what "gold" a steel just at the magical level of carbon without much manganese was for those of us who like to do clay heat treating, so he grabbed it. These are the best steels available, in my opinion (for this). w1 is quite good, and you can have it delivered easily in round and probably flat bar, and there are two types of 1095 out there. If you get the type with the lower manganese (check the specs from the company that sells it to see what you are getting, look for manganese in the 30 pt range, leave alone anything that has manganese in the 50pt range and above).
that's is my advice, for what little its worth. I wish you all the best.
Kevin
contact Aldo at njsteelbaron.com and get w2 or low manganese 1075. That is, of course, just my opinion, but the part about manganese is fact. I am not trying to promote Aldo, though he is a friend. It is just that he understands the needs of knifemakers so he put together a pour of w2 (which was basically not being made anymore). Similarly, some foundry was going to sell one of the big steel dealers an ingot of 1075 and they goofed it and did not put enough manganese in it. So, the ingot was out of spec for the steel company. Aldo knew what "gold" a steel just at the magical level of carbon without much manganese was for those of us who like to do clay heat treating, so he grabbed it. These are the best steels available, in my opinion (for this). w1 is quite good, and you can have it delivered easily in round and probably flat bar, and there are two types of 1095 out there. If you get the type with the lower manganese (check the specs from the company that sells it to see what you are getting, look for manganese in the 30 pt range, leave alone anything that has manganese in the 50pt range and above).
that's is my advice, for what little its worth. I wish you all the best.
Kevin
Id at least expect anodized teeth maybe even damascus!
LOL didnt even think of the hamon.