Thread: Bearing Steel too tough?

So I started on my second attempt at forging a razor using a bearing race that I had left over from a rebuild I did a while back. Most of these are 52100 or similar material.

It forged alright enough, though it took a little longer and needed more frequent heatings.

At the end, I annealed it by slowly lowering the temp in the forge over a period of about 4 hours.
Result? broke 2 bits, and dulled 3 others trying to drill the pin hole! This stuff stays hard even when its soft!

So, I heat treated after grinding and tempered at 400F for 2 hours. Honing was a complete nightmare. Just wearing away hone instead of steel (slight exaggeration, but you get the idea)
So, I put it back in for another hour at 450 The steel came out a "not purple" sort of pink hue.
Its way too late at night for me to try honing it, and that of course IS the best test, but I am curious if any of you other forgers have used bearing steel, and found it simply too hard to work with (in both sense of the word)
Is it such a touch alloy that even when its relatively soft like say R57 that it still is too much of a pain to hone? Or will its wear resistance going to be reduced accordingly as its hardness drops?
Thanks for the input guys.
Magpie

Yes, I've used it, and yes, after heat treating it is extremely hard to grind / hone.
Which is why I don't like it much for razors. For knives, I admit it makes sense to use 52100 if you're making knives that will see significant use. For razors it makes no sense whatsoever. For razors I use O1 or file steel.

I made this one kamisori from 52100 and I find them like good one for razors.

As you can see I didn't have to drill pin hole.

Before hardening I annealed them in forge overnight. And after hardening I temper them 3x.


Soon I will try to make some new kamisories in 52100/iron.

I do not have personal experience with the steel, but I do know Butch has made a lot of razors from 52100.

Charlie

It's not that 52100 is not good, but it is complete overkill and does not have shaving advantages compared to say O1 or even plain high carbon steel. Sure, 52100 is much tougher, which really has no benefit for use as a shaver, unless you are making a razor that is also a pocketknife Of course, as a selling point for knife nuts it is also useful.

I used it, because it is what I happen to have handy. scrap to me, that I wont care if its any good or not. But my question was not answered
Can the toughness be reduced by lower hardness through more tempering? or will the toughness remain no matter what? or will it be TOO soft to hold an edge if you lower the hardness to the point of Non tough?
I will say one thing, as tough as it is, if I DO ever get a shaving edge on it, I bet I never have to reset the bevel again!

Maybe you could punch a hole when it's red, orange, yellow, white, hot ? Sounds like a truck load of work but good to know and learn. :<0)

Ah yes. More tempering and at a higher temperature. That'll make it manageable.
If you haven't tempered it enough, honing it is more like whittling away your hone than removing steel.