When I've looked at the knives in here it is always a type of steel 10## It seems like a mild steel. Why don't you use tool steel because it's so tough, other than expense? PLease explain what kind of steel you want when make a knife and why? I am very curious.

So a leaf spring is an example of plain carbon steel that I could use?

Tool steels tend to be difficult to forge. To get the most out of them often requires soaking at a specific heat during heat treat that is difficult in a coal/charcoal forge.

The 10XX series are easy to forge, cheap and with enough carbon (around 60 point or better) makes for an excellant knife.

at least that is my view of the world

ron

M
Leaf spring is doable, but I have found that a short piece of coil spring is easier to cut and hammer into shape than a chunk of leaf spring.

So a leaf spring is an example of plain carbon steel that I could use?

The leaf spring (assuming it is from a vehicle such as a truck) is probably some sort of alloy like 5160, etc. So, to answer your question, the leaf (vehicle) spring is NOT considered a "plain carbon steel".

Okay thank-you for helping me to better understand this everyone.

MB,
You should throuroughly read and study
http://www.feine-klingen.de/PDFs/verhoeven.pdf.
Then some of this stuff will make more sense to you.
ML

Thanks for posting that mcraigl. Very interesting stuff.