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Old 04-30-2016, 10:11 PM
jimmontg jimmontg is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Now live in Las Cruces NM.
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5160 by itself is decent enough for an axe and I certainly would not add O1 into the mix unless you can forge at 1900 degrees to get the carbon to migrate. That is a hit or miss proposition. My brother and I tried to forge hawk heads from a mix of 4160 and 5160 with good results, but they are similar, O1 is not, too much carbon and that 0.5% tungsten from the O1 makes me wonder. Do a differential heat treat of the 5160 and forget about the O1 is my advice. Since 5160 has about .7 % chrome a 24 hour quench under dry ice would help. Been studying, the sub zero treatments work well with chromium steels and 5160 has close to 1 % chrome. May not get much harder, but will get tougher and more resistant to abrasion.
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