I got my hands on a piece of hy-100 steel. I know nothing about this type of metal. It is 3/4in thick by 1ft wide and 3ft long. im new to making knives and would like to use it for this purpose. Would this make a good knife? If so how do I go about tempering and heat treating it?

With that much why not test it out yourself?

Did yoiu google and ask for the specs on it? that will tell yoiu wot it has in it,,and you can compare that to wot it takes to make a good blade....The site shouild also have heat treat information if it is a steel that be helped by that.....And there are the knife makings lessons and heat treating data on this site...may be worth a lookl

I did look on google, there isnt much on useing it for a knife. all i have found is that it is a structural steel and that the HY stands for high yeld. I have played with it a bit, and made a few knive as a keepsake for some friends. I more or less was wanting to know if anyone has heard of it and knows weather it would be a good material for a functional knife.

Does it give the alloy and carbon content?  IF so it's told you all you need to know about using it for knives.

 

Didn't even need to follow a link from the google page

 

"HY100, This quenched and tempered low-carbon alloy steel finds uses as pressure vessels, heavy construction equipment, and in large steel structures"   From MatWeb

 

So tough and gooey rather than hard and edge holding.  Not a knife alloy!

Thank you vary much for the help and info.

 

Shon

Welcome to the forum scruffy.You could always make something structural from it (like forge legs) and shape them like big knives. ;)

read through the knife making classes,  it explains what we need in a steel for making a knife. its not rocket science, tho heat treating may seem like it sometimes.

They use HY80, and Hy120 for submarine hulls. Saw tons of it around Mare Island Naval Shipyard.

I know I'm 9 years late but here's what I can tell you. I build nuclear submarines and work with this steel all the time. What the numbers represent is tensile strength. HY-80 is incredibly strong. HY-80 is meant to hold up to 80,000 psi (pulling on it), before breaking and HY-100 can hold up to 100,000 psi. Normally, with blade making this may not be the right type of steel, unless you want to use it for tug of war. I'm no blacksmith, so I could be wrong; The thinner you make it (especially using a forge) you could potentially change the integrity of it, and it may actually be far less superior as a blade, than traditional crucible steel, because it's more pure and has less carbon already. Even though it has enough to be somewhat flexible, it needs to be able to withstand a direct torpedo impact, etc. I work with it enough to understand it but am no expert, so like I said... I could be wrong. Others may have already addressed this but I didn't read the comments, so I may have repeated some things.

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. Thank you for serving. If you'll put your general location in the header you'll have a better chance of meeting up with members living within visiting distance.

Yes, HY-80, etc. has been discussed regarding it's unsuitability as a blade steel. It's good to get further confirmation though. Your post raises a question from me though, are the HY series of steels amorphous?

My understanding is heat treatment is the key to producing amorphous steels so forging it at home would pretty much destroy the property. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome from the Ozark mountains and an old Vietnam Era Vet USCG Semper Paratus

Welcome aboard from 7500' in SE Wyoming from an old Viet Nam infantryman.  Glad to have you.  

That is not a common steel for most of us to encounter but it is good to know about it.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Hey I have a block or two of Polaris missile sub steel around,  came from a University with a welding research group.  But yup; not a good blade steel.  An excellent steel alloy but not for blades.  People seem to think that high quality alloys should make good knives; unfortunately "high quality alloy" means designed for a specific purpose and so excellent for that purpose; but most of those purposes are not blades!

The HY series of low carbon high strength steels were optimized for impact strength. They would be great to wrap around a higher carbon core like D2. I haven't made one yet but I bet this would make a great blade.

 

What is its nickle content? Some of these alloys have enough nickle to make them good for high contrast damascus

Some specs on HY-80 & 100

https://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=6720

https://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=6734

 

Looks like it would indeed be some tough steel! And have enough nickel for a bright layer.

Keep it fun,

David

HY80 sheet says it shouldn't be reheated for hot forging. I don't know how that would effect it as a pattern weld material. Either has enough nickel to make strong contrast for sure. If anybody tries it I'd love to see the results.

Frosty The Lucky.

A203E has a nice amount of nickel also and works well under the hammer

The hy alloys (hy stands for high yield strength) are readily forged. We forge them all the time, usually for ship building as noted above. To hit yield strengths of 80 or 100 ksi, tempering temps in the 1100 to 1200 or so range are used. You can get them harder if you use a lower temp, but they are never going to get hard enough for good edge retention, the carbon is to low. Nickel is about 3.5 % and chrome is a bit over 1% so they would be a bright element in damascus. The hy grades are used in very thick plate sections, sometimes 9 inches or more so it is possible to get big chunks if you need that. A203E is used as  pipeline steel. I have only ever seen it in thin plate sections like 3/8 inch. It too has enough nickel to make a bright layer in billets. I dont think it has much else in it and it is also a low carbon grade so not good for edges.