Continuing file steel vs 1095 and Indians

12/3/20, 2:46 AM #1

David Weaver
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Continuing file steel vs 1095 and Indians

David Weaver

I've made a few more chisels. Last I commented, I made a couple out of 1095 and found they just didn't have the ice hardness and biting sharpness of the file steel.

I got parks 50 quenching oil to speed transition and the 1095 hardness is slightly higher after a 400 degree temper. There's just something about the file steel that 1095 doesn't have.

It doesn't seem to matter what brand the file is. I've made a mule and two chisels out of files marked " india", and they have all been excellent. The spark off of them is so intense when grinding that you can put a piece of paper in the spark stream and it'll quickly catch on fire.

I broke one of these Indian files to look at the microstructure and they have the same lovely super fine grain structure that a western chisel has.

Re: Continuing file steel vs 1095 and Indians

12/3/20, 5:03 AM #2

Wiley Horne
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Re: Continuing file steel vs 1095 and Indians

Wiley Horne

“ The spark off of them is so intense when grinding that you can put a piece of paper in the spark stream and it'll quickly catch on fire.”

Not an expert, but this sounds like a very high carbon content. W2 for example.

Wiley

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Re: Continuing file steel vs 1095 and Indians

12/3/20, 12:43 PM #3

David Weaver
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Guessing the same...

David Weaver

two things come to mind with the files - one is the amount of carbon and its even distribution (every one that I've broken has a better microstructure than I can get even after a single hammering heat). The spark is intense enough grinding them that theres an area at the origin of it that is less spark and more like a solid flame of combustion. I haven't seen this on anything else.

The second other than that extremely fine, dense and intense spark is that i'm guessing they have a little something else added to them (manganese, etc) to speed transition, because they harden super hard every time, even in unheated vegetable oil. It doesn't seem like there's too much of anything in them, though, just small amounts - guessing based on how easily they warp in the quench.

Whatever they are, they seem ideal for blade steel - same temper and same sharpening routine, the edge is more crisp on the file steel than 1095.

Continuing file steel vs 1095 and Indians

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