So a buddy is about to delve into the blade making cult/addiction. But due to a serious bum shoulder it's likely to be all stock removal instead of raw forging.
I've volunteered to assist when I can and to be a crash test dummy on new blades. :D
He plans on mostly doing modern fighters, some survival style knives & one piece hawks of both tactical and more woodsy types. My question is what's a good/decent steel for hawks of this type? I was thinking tool steels like D2 or maybe A7 but would 1075 or 1095 be better?
I would avoid air hardening steels like D2, especially for a beginner. 1095, 1075, 4140, 5160, 1084 and L6 are all good options for a full tang hawk.
A very real possibility is that the available stock size that suits your grinding is limited to one or two steels. That alone might help decide what you do. Any of the steels that Ben mentioned will make a good hatchet with the right treatment.
Thanks guys for the as usual awesome help!
Lin brings up a valid point since it's stock removal. Right now, Aldo has 1075 .312" thick up to around 15" wide. I think the price for 6" wide x 48" long is around $150 but you could get several hawks from that. I didn't see any of thier other carbon steels thicker than .250" and most are around 2" wide or less. Their 1075 has a lower manganese level than typical high carbon steel which allows it to produce a nice hamon. You know, just in case somebody ever wanted a hawk with a hamon.
Matt
It's like you read my mind! Have been looking into hamons as well as differential heat treatment should I ever get better than decent on either hawks or stickers. If I can get 1/100th as good as you guys I'll consider it a success.