Originally posted by gudspelr:
This very well could be a dumb question but I figure if I ask then maybe I'll get less dumb... Where would a guy get information like this on several of the steels commonly used for knives? It seems like most have some particulars (soak times at specific temps, etc.) that vary, and sometimes a great deal. Is there a book, chart, or site that lists the info or is it what you've learned over the years? Thanks.
Jeremy
More like a combination of both the scenarios you mention.
It's like slowly gathering this info and then utilizing it until one can make sense of it.
That's why it behooves a maker to pick ONE steel and learn it WELL, such as its forging and hardening procedures, proper quenchants, austenizing steps, post forging and annealing sequences, tempering, etc. possibly creating a small data base of this info, and THEN moving on to another steel.
For performance reasons only, I could use 5160 and never use another steel and be semi-happy.
Learning a whole bunch of steels is just plain fun!