What Type of Steel to Use?? Help Please..

[Nala]

Hey all,

While I am on the lookout for one of those BIG used saw blades I thought I would pick up a piece of steel to try.
When I went to a couple of the steel suppliers I have seen you all mention before, it's almost akin to being written in Mandarin Chinese.  I don't know a thing about all these different kinds of steels.
Can you all tell me what I should look for when shopping for a pice of steel to make a knife with?

Thanks for the help.

Nala

[OconeeDan]

It really depends on what type steel you want to use, try Admiral Steel, or Pop's Knife Supply,  they have a website.
Dan

[skullworks]

Some of the pros will weigh in with the best type. Maybe O1 or 1095?

[Lin Rhea]

If your talking about recycled steel, look for old files or spring steel. These have high carbon content.
                               Lin

[Wampus]

Here are some sites with info on some commonly used knife steels:
 
 http://www.engnath.com/public/steel.htm

 http://ajh-knives.com/metals.html

[Jeremy]

If you're going to the knife supply places (Jantz, Texas Knife, etc) 5160 is pretty hard to mess up.  It only comes in 1/4" thick stock though, so if your interest is in stock removal instead of forging I'd recommend against it.  Next up on the "ease of use" IMO is 1080.  The heat treatment on that is fairly easy too, as is O1.  1095 can be a bit finicky if you're not careful (or are inexperienced) with hardening.

[Kevin Evans]

I started with a couple old files and quikly went to, 5160 as Jeremy says its pretty hard to mess up.I should know I'm a beginer myself. Later Kevin

[Stonedog]

Jeremy is on the bubble.

O1 and 5160 are great steels, period.  They are also great for the beginner.

I buy mine from:
 http://www.flat-stock.com/~store/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=T&Category_Code=PM

Buy the OVERSIZE.

[onemississipp]

Stonedog,
   I just ran across that, then came here and did a search on steel.

Anyone else want to post a good source for steel?

[onemississipp]

opps I lied, I thought it was the site you mentioned, but I was looking at this one.

 http://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant.cfm?id=268&step=2&top_cat=0

[onemississipp]

The OnlineMetals Guide to Tool Steel

 http://www.onlinemetals.com/toolsteelguide.cfm

at the very bottom you find this

"At OnlineMetals, we all failed shop class. Multiple times. As a matter of fact, our employment applications specifically ask to see people's grades for their high school shop classes. If they're too high, they go into the rejected pile. We're also not engineers, and cannot make any specific recommendations about the suitability of a given alloy, temper, or shape for your project or application.

All technical data is for comparison purposes only and is NOT FOR DESIGN. It has been compiled from sources we believe to be accurate but cannot guarantee. This ends the part of the website that our pointy-headed lawyers made us put in. "


Thought that was kinda funny...and scary...