Determining the Best Budget Knife Steel

[Larrin]

Larrin ,
I see 5150 in toughness charts, but donr believe ove seen it in any of your edge retention/Carta tests.

I may, very well be overlooking it.

Is there data on its edge retention on your site?

I have used it on three blades (one 'shade tree heat treat in charcoal to non magnetic and quench in oil, and two professionally heat treated), and have more to use. I may try forging it in the near future, and heat treat in a gas forge with thermocouple temp guide.

My guess is that edge retention will be poor, below 1095?

Since there was no real differentiation between low alloy steels apart from hardness so I don’t see much need to test more of them. 5160 has almost no carbide so its wear resistance would be low regardless of the test.