Looking for history of 5160 spring steel

[Ian]

Originally Posted by mariusgmioc

Very interesting. Thank you!

But actually this steel could have existed much earlier, maybe with small variations, only it was not analysed and documented.

It was only with Industrial Revolution that steels have started to be studied systematically. Prior to that it was only empirical study by trial and error.

After all, every 16th century rapier blade is a spring... but not even its maker knew its composition.

Hi marius:

Yes, I suppose chance may have led to an earlier use of a similar alloy, but 5160 is not just carbon and chromium added to iron. The detailed composition is given above. It seems unlikely that earlier smiths would have stumbled upon this precise formula, but I suppose anything is possible. There are non-destructive methods that can now test for mineral content, so your idea could be readily tested using old, well-dated pieces.

As for carbon steel alone being springy, that is absolutely true. The quality of a blade depends so much on its tempering, and properly quenched carbon steel can certainly exceed the quality of a poorly tempered 5260 blade. The addition of chromium adds durability toughness to the steel, making it less likely to fail under a load.

Ian