steel for large knives

[Frank Novak]

Pretty general question, but is there a blade steel that is better for large knives like bowies? Im talking about carbon steel. Thanks.Frank.

[kbaknife]

Not that I know of/not really.
To possibly qualify that statement I will suggest the idea that beyond, and even more important than, steel type in nearly all knife making arenas, heat treatment is far more important than steel type.
It's what you DO with the steel you have - not what TYPE of steel you have.
For example a quote from a long-time and famous sword maker, Roman Landes, he often says, "Geometry cuts. Heat treatment determines how long".
Notice that he didn't say steel type or alloy, but "geometry".
And that's the truth.
A fabulous 'designer' steel properly hardened and tempered, but ground and shaped poorly will do a horrible job of cutting. Conversely, I can grind a piece of mild steel - that will not harden at all - sharp enough to cut a couple times. But then it's done.
I recently made a post about flexing steel.
Flex has nothing to do with hardness - nothing. What determines how a steel flexes is its GEOMETRY. Hardened and unhardened steel of the same geometry flex exactly the same every time. What the heat treatment determines is where the unhardened blade will take a set and not return to straight.
Regardless of steel type.
There are many, many types of simple carbon steels that will perform exceedingly well as a Bowie, provided the blade smith knew what he was doing metalurgically and shape the blade profile and cutting edge with the cutting tasks in mind.

[gudspelr]

^^^^^^ What he said  

As usual, Karl gives some great advice and he's spot on. There are quite a few different steels you could use and get great results (with proper geometry and heat treat). Part of narrowing down your selection may have to do with your equipment and what you're going for. How are you going to heat treat the blade? Some steels might, maybe...get you a tad more of something, but only if you have some great equipment to hold really tight tolerances and get the absolute maximum out of it. For many of us, that's not the reality in our shops. But, do you want a hamon? If you're going the clay route for that, many a great Bowie has been made from W2. Low manganese 1075 would also be a great choice for that. If you're not shooting for that, there are a lot of mono steels that'll do great-5160, 80crv2, L6, 1080, 1095, 52100...and the list goes on. But again, it would depend upon your equipment and ability to properly heat treat it. 52100 is pretty awesome, but I haven't tackled it and it can be a bit finicky when heat treating.

If you have any particular experience with one and are more comfortable with how it works, I'd say go for that one. Whatever direction you go, I know there are a lot of super knowledgable guys here that can help you through the trouble spots. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Jeremy