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C – 0.55-.65% Commonly used as coil and leaf springs in the automobile industry, 5160 is a bladesmith favourite. It is easy to forge, has a simple heat treating cycle and the manganese content helps with shock absorption, especially when one is making a large or camp knife that will see a lot of chopping action. I often use it as blade steel, and because it is an excellent spring steel I use this steel for all my folder springs as well. 5160 can be forge welded using only borax as a flux, the only prerequisite being a clean fire and clean joints. I have found more weld failures with this steel than with the 10- series steels, possibly because of the Chromium content. Grinding the pieces to be welded clean and as close fitting as possible lessens the danger of weld failures. A way past this weakness is to have the pieces of 5160 plated with Nickel prior to welding. Damascus containing 5160 should be forged at welding heat. I have also found that 5160 burns quite readily when overheated in a coal forge. 5160 anneals very well, heating to the point where a magnet no longer sticks and covering the blade with vermiculite renders the steel soft enough to be drilled or filed. It is advisable to normalise the blade after annealing for drilling and file work, as the spine of the blade tends to be too soft if an edge quench is done directly without normalising. See also: bladesmithing, damascus, steels
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