52100 Blades

Has anyone worked with 52100?
Is it hard to grind?
Any tips on heat treat and finish?

I have seen an antiqued finish (Kinda brown) but don't know how it was done.

Thanks,

Bob Sigmon

Since I know he knows as much about it as any knifemaker working today, you might want to ask this question of Ed Caffrey on his forum.

Jerry's right. Ed Caffrey certainly knows 52100. You may want to pose this question in his forum, or he may see it and offer some help here. I know that Ed will be naturally drawn to a forum with a name like "High-Performance Blades".

Another maker who comes to mind is Ray Kirk. Ray's 52100 knives have amazing performance. Ray is a member of the CKD Forums but I don't know how often he visits. The URL to Ray's web site is:

www.tah-usa.net/raker/

My experience with Ray has been that he is very good about sharing information.

Although I'm just a beginner, I thought I'd chime in here.

52100 is hard to forge, hard on grinding belts(although not as bad as ats-34), takes 3 days to harden, and can be tricky to work with.

Now having said that, it is by far my favorite steel for several reasons, it will take an unbelievibly sharp edge, it will hold that edge forever, is very easy to sharpen, and while not as tough as L-6 or 5160 is very tough, and for a non stainless steel is not as bad about rusting or discoloring as O-1 or 1095.