Greetings,
So I am quite inexperienced to bladesmithing and have some questions that I hope the veterans can help me with. I have attached pictures of my 2nd and 3rd attempt at knifes and then both of them "finished". My 2nd attempt was just an attempt at a blade shape that I don't know what could be classified as. My 3rd attempt was an attempt at a paring knife. Both are made of aircraft grade bolts that are shown in the first picture. I stripped the cadmium plating with acid before forging. I've heat treated and tempered them and even did a test piece. The test piece was very hard to break (6+ hits on a small section sticking out of the vice with my forging hammer, with no bending ) and the grain structure looked good to my inexperienced eyes.
I have the government specs for what the bolts should be made of. There are 5 different compositions that the contract requires and I'm starting to get confused because they seem to be pretty different types of steel. I looked the part number (5306-00-619- 5811) up on www.iso-group.com and it listed that the bolts can be made from 4140, E4340, 6150, 8735, or 8740. I've looked up all those steels on www.steelforge.com to look up their characteristics and I'm still wondering if it's worth my time. Finally, I've tried to search each composition with the "comp # and knife" to find opinions on the possible types of steel and still don't know if I should continue forging them.
My overall questions are: With the range of steel that the bolt can be made of, is it worth my time? My (small) blades are holding and edge and are tough, is that a fluke?
P.S. feel free to critique my early work so I can improve myself.
--Max