W1 as blade steel

strahd71

strahd71

Joined
Jan 26, 2006
Messages
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on another thread the other day some one suggested w1 from fastenal as being good for knife making steel. i've tried "searching" and havent come up with anything on w1. i did go through the newbies area and found very little info there except that it was basically w2 except with out vanadium or something.

anyone have any opinion on this? used it? heat treating?

thanks for any help

jake
 
I have used W-1 a couple of times with good results.

Here is a guide that I found for HT

Here is a typical make-up of W-1 that I found on the I-net:

Carbon - 0.70-1.50%
Chromium - 0.15%
Manganese - 0.10-0.40%
Molybdenum - 0.10%
Nickel - 0.20%
Silicon - 0.10-0.40%
Tungsten - 0.50%
Vanadium - 0.10%

Don Hanson did have some W-2 for sale HERE . He also gives the make-up of the W-2

Hope this helps a little.

Robert
 
That was probably me that recommended it. It's just about all I forge with anymore a lil 5160 once in a while but mostly it's all W1 for me now. If your forging it use the 5/8"-11/16"-3/4" diameter drill rod for a hunters-edc and the like. and 7/8 - 1 1/4" for huge bowies, choppers, etc. It's very important to leave the edge thickness atleast .050" minimum while forging and prepping for heat treat. Anything less and it will be prone to crack. Sand to 220 before heat treating, normalize 3x then dunk in brine solution. a can of morton salt to a 5 gal bucket nets about a 10% solution which is about perfect for brine quenching. Also a $3.00 tube of ZAP furnace caulk from Lowes will make some pretty remarkable and active hamons with it. Also and this is VERY important... Make sure you go straight to a preheated 400ºF oven with in minutes if not seconds from quenching. cycle 2x for 2 hours and you will have a very good blade.

Good Luck and post pics!

Jason
 
It was you Jason! i couldn't remeber where i had read it and when i used the search for w1 i didnt get any resulst.

thank you for the tips i am going to save the info.

i'm not ready for a big steel order and we just got a fastenal last year so.....

thanks

jake
 
Don I know you've worked with W series alot more than I have and if there's anything that I missed or got wrong by all means jump in and set me /us straight! by the way man your work is simply amazing!
 
Note the carbon range !!! W1 and W2 have a very large range of carbon.I think they typically are in the higher portion of the range .It's a good idea to find out exactly what you are getting because HT and performance will be very different ! If you have a choice get W2 as the small amount of vanadium will produce finer grain.
 
mete said:
Note the carbon range !!! W1 and W2 have a very large range of carbon.I think they typically are in the higher portion of the range .It's a good idea to find out exactly what you are getting because HT and performance will be very different ! If you have a choice get W2 as the small amount of vanadium will produce finer grain.
Click to expand...


Yeah, I saw that. .70-1.50!, What is up with that?
 
I bought several 12' sticks of 1" round W1 some years back before I bought 1,000# of W2 from Tremblay (aka Don's W2 :D ).

I really like it... I asked for a spec sheet, and the carbon is listed at 1.02% I had it tested just because, and it came back as 1.03%

It forges easily, is easy to heat-treat, and performs well... AND finishes nicely. I agree with mete that W2 is going to give a finer grain. :)

Here's the best pic I have of one in W1. Kind'a proud of this one ;)

orig.jpg
 
i like that for the moment its local. i understand that there are better steels. but i am new and need something decent to bang on for the time being. so this sounds like a good start.

Nick the knife is awsome!

jake
 
JasonSCarter said:
Don I know you've worked with W series alot more than I have and if there's anything that I missed or got wrong by all means jump in and set me /us straight! by the way man your work is simply amazing!
Click to expand...

Jason, Thanks! All I'll say is you're a brave man to be "dunken in a brine solution"
I use a fast oil ;)

Yeah, I saw that. .70-1.50!, What is up with that?
Click to expand...
Nathon, W1 and W2 could/can be order in a wide range of carbon content.
Now days most is around 1%
 
Fastenal also lists o1, and a2 in precision flat ground stock also.

Nick that knife is incredible!

Would quenching in an automotive antifreeze solution make any sence? Antifreeze raises the boiling temp, but a little less heat transfer than strait water.
 
Nathan, I don't know the history of the carbon range .But it's best to check so you know what you have .About 1.0 % C would be a good amount. Another example of specs vs melting practice for tool steels !
 
try looking also in old files. Some of them are made in good W1 and good W2. You need to anneal them of course before working on them.
Cheers.
 
Don Hanson III said:
Jason, Thanks! All I'll say is you're a brave man to be "dunken in a brine solution"
I use a fast oil ;)
Click to expand...

Parks 50 no doubt... It would be great for it! however since there is no possible way of avoiding the pearlite nose with W1 I'm minimising the amount of pearlite with a superfast quench. From what I've gathered brine is even faster than straight water. and so long as I leave .050" min on the edge and normalize 3x before dunking, I havent had any dreaded ping's yet!

John0270 try it and have it analyzed then report back to us. Home made quench goo is usually frowned upon here becuase they are untested and just cuase it may skate a file when it's done does not mean it has hardened to 100% of what it could do...

Jason
 
NickWheeler said:
Here's the best pic I have of one in W1. Kind'a proud of this one ;)

orig.jpg
Click to expand...


And rightly so :thumbup: :thumbup: I was just getting ready to ask if this was the Bowie you won the George Peck Award with. Now that I'm posting I see my answer on the bottom of your pic.

Thats one sweet blade dude !!! From stem to stern....... Perfect !! ;) :D




:cool:
 
=NickWheeler;6641413]I bought several 12' sticks of 1" round W1 some years back before I bought 1,000# of W2 from Tremblay (aka Don's W2 :D ).
Click to expand...


Nick, I got to say here, not all of Tremblay's W2 is the same, some of the first I got from them 6 years ago was so different from bar to bar that consistent heat treating was impossible. Ask Burt Foster...

I got to know the president of the company before he left, he did some digging and fixed me up with the good stuff, all from the same melt, specs below :)
C .95,
Mn .22,
V .19,
Cr .15,
Si .23,
Mo .013,
Ni .08,
Cu .14

BTW, Great lookin knife, Nick!
 
Don, I might have just gotten lucky. I started with a 40# box of drops and found it all quite different, like you said. When I put my big order in, I asked that it all be from the same melt with a spec sheet. I got about 700# of 1-3/4" round, and just for fun some 2" square :eek: (don't ask me why, it seemed like a good idea at the time, lol) oh, and a little 1" thrown in for good measure.

I had it tested and it all came out the same. The spec sheet looks like yours, but just a tad higher on the carbon. I'm thinking that could just be the difference in labs.

Maybe I should send you a piece of my 1-3/4" and see if it works the same for you as all the W2 that you have....

edited to add that I'm pretty sure the 2" square is not from the same melt, just because of it's much different cross section....but I don't know that. It does seem to like clay.
 
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