Search the Community

Hi all , greetings from Argentina. I been doing some knives with 5160 and notice they're not able to hold a good edge. I believe it is because it's not a really hard steel , plus I have been tempering to straw yellow (I temper by color) . So the thing is I will be quenching a kitchen knife for my father tomorrow and I want to try not to temper (the edge at least) . The question is I'm I loosing some mechanical benefit besides toughness?

Lavender horse bowie and autumn kitchen knife Waterjet and then forged 5160 spring steel with integral guard. Autumn leaves and lavender cast into the handle window. Also part of the series is a ram and boar's head, so keep an eye out for those coming up soon Let me know what yall think, Theo

This has been a prototype I've been developing for a while and am happy to finally show off! Waterjet cut then forged 5160 blade with integral guard. Handle window contains dried autumn leaves suspended in alumilite. Next I'll be working on different versions of this with various blade styles and handle materials ranging from crushed egg shells to solid cocobolo to antler. Leme know what yall think!

Been dark for a while and I missed the forum have been busy in the meantime though! So this is the second full blade i have completed, figured id share it and see if i can get some constructive criticism. I will suspend 'if you dont have anything nice, dont say anything at all' for this purpose, im already pretty keenly aware of most of the flaws. I was more concerned with actually completing the project and the larger skill concepts, less so with spending hours and hours sanding. The blade was forged during a California Blacksmith Association anual class/event/sub-conference called Waynes World, which is a weekend bender of a class hosted by Wayne (surprise!) at his home shop near Riverside, this year the venerable Tony Swatton was our instructor, teaching us how to forge a wrap around tang handled knife and showed us some pretty neat techniques for wood handles. I have already made some in this pattern from mild steel, and half completed one in W1, so I as usual I wanted to do something over and above the minimum, hence the kukri. I also dont like to have a bunch of the same pattern or role of knives, so the kukri pattern was a first for me, and quite a challenge to forge! The starting stock was 6 inches of 1/4" by 2" new stock 5160 spring steel forged by hand to yeild a 6" blade and 10.5" overall length knife. Big shoutout to my friend Steevens for the Every Day Kukri (EDK) moniker, its big enough to handle most chopping tasks, but small enough to pack along easily. After I make a sheath for it, that is. Took me an hour to drill the holes in the tang, which I stupidly hardened as much as the blade. Heated the blade for HT in an electric kiln so the whole thing was up to temp and I didnt want to leave the tang out of the oil and have it smoking like the devil or possibly flare up on me so I just dunked the whole thing. Ended up submerging the blade in a bucket of water at home and torched the life out of the tang with my plumbers torch to draw the temper back as much as possible or kinda faux anneal it. Managed to punch the holes through after that with a regular bit, but my 1/4" will never be the same again, its *seen* things man! XD The handle scales are purple heart and the liners are a ruberized gasket material, the mosaic pins I bought from Tru-Grit at a knife show, lanyard tube is a simple brass tube. The bead is mostly the same construction, the endcaps are brass sheet metal with two sizes of brass tube that nest within each other with one soldered on to each plate. The center layer is brass and copper mokume, from a billet edge trimming I saved from a billet I forged in a class taught by Jay Burnham Kidwell a few years ago, had to forge it carefully on edge to spread the material wider to match the dimensions of the bead design and the wood. Went with blue paracord to tie the liners together between the handle and the bead. The mokume doesnt read well in the bead right now, its too freshly finished. I can't heat patina it without killing the epoxy or burning the liners or wood, and I don't have much for chemical patina except liver of sulphur, but I dont think I can safely apply that without fouling the rest up next to it. So I'm just going to let it ride naturally, which should show up fairly well by the end of the week. Sharpened freehand on a 220 belt on my 1x42 and stropped on my paddle, it slices magazine paper readily and chops efficiently. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated, thank you and thanks for looking!

Thought I would share a few pics of the latest blade I finished. It is hand forged 5160 steel. It is 11 1/2" total length. Blade is 6" long and 2" wide. About 5/32 thick. Handle is 5 1/2" long. Knife was done all by hand. Forged, draw filed, hand sanded up to 2500 grit. I left a few forging marks in the blade to give it a little character. It has a convex cutting edge that cuts really good. Handle is stabilized bone scales pinned with 3/32 304 SS pins. It has black vulcanized liners. Bone scales hand rubbed down to 1000 grit for a real smooth finish. Sheath is 6/7 oz leather. Pouch style sheath, hand sewn. Full welt that his been burnished and finished with Fiebing brown edge coat. Sheath is natural veg tan finished with neatsfoot oil and a top coat of mink oil. No dye or tooling on this one. I really like the way this knife turned out. I hope you guys like it too!

So this is my sixth knife, It was conceptualized as a cutting competition chopper, but I got it a little too thin for my comfort, so it was given new life as a butcher type kitchen knife. This is the first knife I've done plunge lines on, and they're a pain. Next time I'll cut them in before the final grind. Other than those scratches around my plunge lines, this knife is a workhorse, not a shelf queen, so I stuck with a hand rubbed 400g finish, followed by the ol' nonwoven pad. What do you think?

I was wondering if any of you know of supplier that sells 5160-alloy steel, I have been looking online for the last few weeks and cannot find a supplier. The local steel contractor can get it but it would twice as much because of shipping from dealer to dealer; also I know that many truck springs are made from 5160, however some are not. So any help in finding an online supplier who sells 5160 would be awesome, or a similar alloy with similar characteristics would be great as well. Thanks

This is actually my first forge project I've ever done. It is a hatchet made from a 5160 Leaf Spring. With my current tools, I couldn't really obtain a very smooth forge finish, so please excuse its roughness. I also understand that because the blade is not directly center with the eye, that there will be balance issues. Since I have such little experience, I did not want to attempt a forge weld. Feel free to critique. I am very close to being ready to heat treat it, but I have some questions. First, I'll list my currently available quenchants. I have water, brine solution, dish soap solution, 2-stroke motor oil, and chainsaw bar lubricant. My current understanding is to austenitize the steel by heating it to its critical temperature in the forge, which I have read is approximately 800 degrees C. The steel should be the color of unfanned wood coals. I have magnets for checking to make sure. Once having reached critical temp, I am to quench the edge in whatever quenchant I decide to use. This begs the following questions: For how long? Do I rapidly submerge the steel, or slowly? How far up past the edge should I quench for a hatchet? Next, I am to temper it. This is the part I am most unclear on. From what I understand, I can buy a toaster oven from the thrift store, wrap the blade in foil, and heat for however long I need to at whatever temp. I am sure that there are charts online that will aid me in knowing this. This also begs a question: What is the desired hardness for a hatchet or axe? 55 rc? I also wonder how important it is that I relieve the stress in it first. From what I can tell, this is done by annealing. I plan on doing this by lighting a wood fire in my 55 forge, and letting the blade sit in the coals until the fire burns itself out. How many times should I do this?