Thread: steels
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Old 11-23-2016, 08:44 AM
WNC Goater WNC Goater is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ed Caffrey View Post

I can't speak to the individual(s) specific reasons for not recommending 1095, but I can tell you that I DO NOT recommend 1095 to anyone, and do not use it in my shop/knives. What's not commonly known is that several years ago, industry quietly changed the specifications on 1095, and didn't make is publicly known. In order to make producing 1095 cheaper, they widened out the Manganese specs. The old spec was .30-.50, and the new spec is .20-.70. The upper end of that spec isn't a problem, but if you happen to get a batch/bar of 1095 with the .20 spec, you have less then one second on the time/temp curve to harden it....what that means is that you have less then one second to get the steel from it's critical temp, to less then 400F, in order to achieve full hardening. For anyone not in a lab type environment, that is physically impossible.

The way I discovered this info was from emails and phone calls from individuals telling me they could not get blades of 1095 to harden, and asking for my help/advice. After researching it, and talking to friends in the steel industry, I discovered the change in 1095 specs. There are still many folks using 1095, and still unaware of the changes in it..... I suspect that with 1095 many are not actually achieving full hardening of the steel, and are just assuming that all is good.
Ed, do you know if this applies to 1095 from the NJSB? I know he is popularly used and he focuses on blade steel. It would be really bad if he were producing 1095 with those characteristics and selling it for "blade steel".

That and...I have some 1095 from him. I have not noticed it not hardening though.


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