5160 vs 1095 For Swords

I'd have no problem with 5160 for a sword. 1095 have to be heat treated just right to maximize its toughness. not sure it's a steel I'd pick but theres a guy here who makes movie replica and such swords in it and has testing videos and seems to do fine.
 
From what i've read, the sweet spot for carbon content in sword steel is between .55 to .75 to retain toughness. That being said have seen a bunch of guys make swords with higher content that stood up well to abuse.

I would likely choose 5160 over 1095, I know from experience at higher hardness it can be a bit brittle.

My swords are both 9260.

Saw a video of a CPK sword in 3V that was amazing, beat the heck out of it and bent it over almost 90 degrees and it sprang back true and was still sharp, if I recall correctly 3V has about .80% carbon.
 
texpat said:
From what i've read, the sweet spot for carbon content in sword steel is between .55 to .75 to retain toughness. That being said have seen a bunch of guys make swords with higher content that stood up well to abuse.

I would likely choose 5160 over 1095, I know from experience at higher hardness it can be a bit brittle.

My swords are both 9260.

Saw a video of a CPK sword in 3V that was amazing, beat the heck out of it and bent it over almost 90 degrees and it sprang back true and was still sharp, if I recall correctly 3V has about .80% carbon.
Click to expand...
Cpm3v (at least, when heat treated correctly) has been a nice surprise for me and, apparently, a good choice for swords. I still would not use it, because I'm bad sharpening and all those carbides would make it even more difficult, but still a nice surprise.
For a sword, first I would need to trust the maker, the steel would be secondary.
 
DocJD said:
From this chart at least , 8670 seems an obvious choice . :cool:
Click to expand...
Or better yet, Z-tuff or CPM 1V

high-alloy-toughness-3-7-2024.png
 
DocJD said:
From this chart at least , 8670 seems an obvious choice . :cool:
Click to expand...

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How to Heat Treat Nickel Knife Steels - 15N20, 8670, L6 - Knife Steel Nerds

Thanks to the new Knife Steel Nerds Patreon supporters! Fikes Lee, Dennis Toland, mlknhny, Immenreiner, Robert Pearce, Andrew Lakey, and Scott Amstutz. It is thanks to your support that I can do experiments like the ones you find in this article. YouTube Video Here is a video version of the...
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seems like there were issues with repeatability of toughness results in 8670
 
I believe Busse made them in 5160. I’ll see if I can post a pic later.
 
I'm not a bladesmith, just your average armchair quarterback, lol. But have owned swords and machetes and such for years, spent a lot of time here and other places learning about such things.

Wife and I both started hollering at the TV along about the 4th season of FiF when we thought somebody was screwing up, lolol!

One episode, watched the first two rounds, wife went in kitchen to make some snacks, missed the portion with the last two guys at their home forges, came back in and asked what she had missed, I replied "nothing yet, but J. Neilson is about to break the hell out of this guy's sword, he used straight up 1095".

Broke in 3 pieces.
 
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