Thread: 1095 Steel

Jantz sells annealed steel for knife making. The only one that I saw that was high carbon was the 1095. I could be wrong. I don't recognize most of the stuff there.

Jantz Supply - Your source for knifemaking!

Is 1095 good for razor making and, if it is, where can I find how I should treat this steel?

Thanks.

Here you are:

How do I heat treat and temper 1095 steel? - BladeForums.com

It's from a bladesmith's forum. Lots of great info there.

Ed,

1095 is a good blade steel, but it's not the easiest steel to heat treat properly. 1084 (or 1080) is very similar in edge holding quality, but is more forgiving in heat treating. It all comes down to your equipment and experience.

I don't see 1080 listed at Jantz (and they don't make 1084 anymore), but you can get 1084FG (fine grained) from Aldo Bruno, the New Jersey Steel Baron. I don't know if he has any left, but Aldo is a great guy to deal with.

Of course, another option would be to go with some nice CPM 154 CM stainless and let someone like Paul Bos heat treat it for you. The CPM 154 CM is great stuff. Jantz, among others, sell it.

If you are dead set on 1095, here's the info from the Heat Treater's Guide.

Hey, thanks for the info guys. I should just take my time and get my equipment together first so that I don't have to find alternatives to doing things myself. I'm in no rush.

Thanks again.

Fastedge,

If you'd like to learn about 1095, I'd suggest reading a book by wayne goddard. 50$ knife shop. It has tons of information about it. It is very simple to heat treat 1095.

You basically heat it up to a red color, you know you've hit the magic temp because the steel becomes non-magnetic at that point. heat it up untill it won't stick to a magnet. Then you have to cool it very fast, but not too fast. Usually done in a slightly heated oil ( 150F) At this point the steel will be very hard, and brittle. You have to draw the temper. This is done at 400F for approx. 1 1/2 hrs. Then it should be of good quality edge holding temper.

With all this being said, The problem for razors would be the extremely fine edge required. It would be very easy to heat up the steel while making a final grind and ruin the temper. And if you already had it finely ground before heat treating, the heat treating process usually warps the steel to a fine degree.... so you see it's a would be a very difficult process to make your own razors with 1095 and simple tools..... ( I've thought about it often enough... haha)

sorry got to step in here

less you have parks 50 or the = you will be leavif a bit under the table when quenching as you ahve about 1 sec to get under the curve
1095 is closer to a water quench steel and the problem is that you will loose a few blades i a water quench

heatig tio red is not a good plan cause ever ones color by eye is different as is the color in the room you heat treat in (darknes can make a difference in percived color)
better to try the mag. trick or better yet if doig by hand slowy bring up to tem and when the mag stops stickign and you can see shadows dancing in the steel (its the conversion point ) let at theat temp a sec adn then quench



1084 or 1080 is a bit more forggiving as you ahve abut 2 sec to get most out of the steel in quench
maybe a trip to blade forums adn there shop talk is in order kevin cashen has some good stuf wrote up there

now that all said
you can make a blade at the 50$ knife shop way adn have a blade but if you want to max out the steel you are usign you need to work a bit harder

The Currie Point (non-magnetic) of iron is 1414 degrees F. The Heat Treater's Guide says that 1095 needs to be heated to 1475 degrees F. Therefore, if you determine your temperature with a magnet, you could be under heating 1095 by as much as 61 degrees. That would make a difference in you finished piece

I was going to ask about this very topic.

Try this linky and let me know if the information presented is solid.

Thanks

My opinion is that the information presented in that link is not horrible, but I think you can find some better info. I am partial to the heat treating info for 1084 that Kevin Cashen (ABS Mastersmith) has posted. If you use 1095, your heat treating temp should be 1475, not the 1500 for 1084. (You may notice that Kevin's info contains a lot of question marks. I believe that is because some editing program couldn't handle the degree sign on the temps, so it went with "?" marks.

While I'm plugging Kevin's info, you might as well take a long look at his website. He has a boat load of good info posted there, and it's all free. Plus, since it comes from Kevin you can count on its reliability (although his typing skills can be lacking at times )

Kevin Cashen on:

Forging

Steel Selection

Other Topics

Articles (great stuff here!)

I agree with what Chris said and echo his recommendation of Kevin Cashen's stuff. Kevin has spent a lot of time and money investigating metallurgy as applies to bladesmithing, and you can't go wrong taking his advice.

One other point about 1095: The "annealed" 1095 that I've worked with had a lot of carbides in it that made it difficult to work. I ruined several hacksaw blades and drill bits on one 1/8" thick piece when I was first starting out.

Go with 1080 for now--you won't regret it.

Josh