Hi Jens
5160 is a carbon steel which has up to 1%Cr and .6 carbon.... therefore it is a medium carbon steel that deep hardens...... it works excellently for swords and other long blades...
Cracking... the cracks are not the same ones that you find on some ingots ..... these cracks form as you are forging ..... they resemble the delaminations you find occuring with pattern welded blades... .
- you could remelt the whole ingot......but this would cost alot of money.... 30lbs of propane and 40.00 for the crucible for the remelt....... it is better to grind out the crack.... and continue forging..... which has worked for me in the past.....
-- you can never tell which ingot will turn out to be grumpy and disobedient....lol
- in one experiment.....i left the delam and made it into a sword..... it worked fine....just have a big line in the middle of the blade.... it is unsightly
Greg
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