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I have had mixed results with 52100. My first attempts with this steel were ball bearings from a locomotive. they were quite large and I reduced them dowm to size with a power hammer and a press. I successfully made two very nice blades from the bearing but then tried twice more and had cracked blades both times. Not sure if the steel had been damaged due to previous use or not. I ordered some from Kelly, and made one knife from his steel with good results. The steel proved to produce a very good knife with an exceptional edge hardness/sharpness. The knife was also quite tough...but not quite as tough as 5160. I did notice that it worked better when forged at a yellow/orange heat, and I didn't think it was as difficult as I had been led to believe it might be. All in all, I thought it was somewhat tempermental to work with, but worth the effort. Not as simple as 1080...but what is. I suspect that the two cracked blades I experienced were the result of forging at too low of a temp.
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