52100 round bar

Metalhead0483

Metalhead0483

Joined
Jan 17, 2008
Messages
539
Recently I've been forging a lot of smallish knives (blade length 1.5"-3") from round bar. Mostly for carving and general utility blades. I've been using O1, as it's cheap, easy to get, forges well, and performs just fine.

I was just on Amazon and saw that they are selling 52100 round bar for quite a reasonable price. 0.29" diameter (which is more than enough for my needs) and six feet long for about $16 shipped Prime (Which in Alaska is worth more than the item is). That's an increase of maybe 10% over the O1 I've been using. What do you think for cost vs. performance? Is 52100 10% more steel than 01?
 
52100 is killer steel. Did you really mean that the rod is .29" that's a titch bigger the 1/4" in Diamater. That seams a tad on the small size for forging.
 
THis is my kind of bar stock. Over 3.5" in Diamater and 70lbs between those two bars. It's also 52100
Photo%20Feb%2027%2C%2011%2050%2049.jpg
 
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JTknives said:
52100 is killer steel. Did you really mean that the rod is .29" that's a titch bigger the 1/4" in Diamater. That seams a tad on the small size for forging.
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Yep, I sure did. Those little pen/utility knives I've been making forge out really well from quarter inch stock. The first ones I did were from 0.18" 1085 piano wire, which really was too small to be convenient, but Damned if I didn't make it work ;)

You forge from 3.5" round stock JT? Jesus Christ man...
 
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There are tricks to working with such large stock. One trick is to slice off cookies and draw it out into a bar.
 
JTknives said:
There are tricks to working with such large stock. One trick is to slice off cookies and draw it out into a bar.
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There speaks a man with a power hammer...

I can only wish I was equipped to that level. Nope It's just me and my hammers on an old, undersized Vulcan anvil. Good times are had though.
 
Ray Kirk has bigger sizes like .531, 5/8, 3/4 and 1 inch.
 
Metalhead0483 said:
There speaks a man with a power hammer...

I can only wish I was equipped to that level. Nope It's just me and my hammers on an old, undersized Vulcan anvil. Good times are had though.
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For "cookies" from big round stock like that, you need a badass saw more than a power hammer!! :eek:
 
I wish I had a power hammer. I just slice it off and use my forging press and hammer and forge the circle into an oval and then into a bar. Then draw it out into a knife.
 
Forge press works too. That's on my "to build" list, but it's not going to happen anytime soon... :-\

jdm61 said:
Ray Kirk has bigger sizes like .531, 5/8, 3/4 and 1 inch.
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Oh Amazon has sizes up into a couple of inches. The .25"-.30" is what I'm using for these projects though. Anything else just results in additional forging for no reason. As to buying it elsewhere... I'd love to, but as much as I dislike dealing with big places like amazon the cost difference once you include shipping to Alaska is just not practical.
 
Stacy, I wonder which size you start with for what target size blade? As in, start with 1/2" round if you want a X" wide blade, start with 3/4" round if you want a Y" blade. I've been trying to read through old threads to figure this out and I'm still a bit lost. I understand there are other variables including blade thickness and how many hammer mistakes you need to grind off after :) but just a general starting rule of thumb would be great.
 
We had a discussion while back about how you could draw out a 3/4 inch round bar into a 2 inch wide chef knife. I think the consensus was that it could be done, but don't plan on making the blade a whole lot longer than the original blade part of the round bar. ;)
 
i would typically use a 1 inch round bar of W2 for a knives like these, but understand that with my press, and limited die selection, I would mostly be drawing the bar out lengthwise.Mandt_NY08_01-ww.jpg
 
Metalhead0483 said:
Lovely stuff Joe...
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Thanks. Those are actually quite old, made in the fall of 2008 and were very important in my knife making journey as they were arguably the first knives were I came as close as I could to getting everything kinda sorta right. Those made the trip with me to my first Belgian Knife Society show in November of that year. I had only been trying to make knives since 2005-06 and had moved out of my garage and into a little shop space with most of the proper tools needed about 8 months before I made these. If you ever saw the knives I had at the local central Florida show in January of 2008, you would have surmised that I had just been fumbling about for a couple of years and didn't actually learn how to make knives that summer of 2008. ;)
 
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