Bar Stock Calculatora free tool from KraftyQuote

5160 for knives

5160 is leaf-spring steel — 0.6% carbon with chromium — and it is what large blades, swords and kukris are made from when toughness matters more than edge retention. It hardens in medium oil, tolerates a sloppy heat treat better than anything else on this list, and takes a beating.

Heat treat at a glance

Good for	Bowies, kukris, camp choppers, swords, tomahawks. Not a kitchen steel.
Forging	Up to ~2200 °F; stop at 1600 °F. Forges beautifully
Normalize	1600 °F single cycle (KSN, Cashen) or 1650 / 1500 / 1350 (NJSB)
Austenitize	1500–1525 °F, 15 min soak
Quench	Medium oil — Parks AAA or an 11-second oil; Parks 50 also works
Temper	375–400 °F twice → 58.5–59.5 HRC; 350 °F gets just over 60; 450 °F for a sword
Working hardness	56–59 HRC

Typical shop values. Confirm against your supplier's datasheet.

Buying it

Flat bar 3/16–3/8 in, wide widths readily available; also, of course, leaf springs.

Lower carbon means it tops out around 60–62 HRC as-quenched; 58–59 after temper is where it lives.
Springs from a truck are usually 5160 or close, but you will not know for sure — test a coupon before making a customer knife from one.

Suppliers: New Jersey Steel Baron Alpha Knife Supply Jantz

Work out the bar for your knife in 5160

Your knife

Method

Blade length

Blade height at ricasso

Spine thickness (finished)

Tang length

Tang style

Steel

Price per lb (edit to match your supplier)

$/lb

Advanced: allowances & bar lengths

Forging / grinding allowance

Forged: scale, decarb and clean-up (10–15%). Stock removal: extra length for layout (about 5%).

Cut-off per blade

Saw kerf plus the stub you can't use.

Forged thickness

Forging to shape, then grinding the spine to size? Go one size up.

Buy this bar

Recommended stock

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Stock per blade

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Steel weight per blade

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Finished blade weight

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Steel cost per blade

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Waste

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Minimum bar length

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Bar length	Blades	Bar cost	Per blade	Left over

What should I charge for this knife? →

Steel is only part of the cost. Add abrasives, handle, heat treat and your time, and see the price that actually pays you.

or skip ahead and save it as a quote in KraftyQuote

Knives to make from 5160

Kukri2 1/2 × 1/4 in Bowie1 3/4 × 1/4 in Camp knife1 1/2 × 3/16 in Seax1 1/2 × 3/16 in

Questions

Is 5160 good for knives?

For big ones, excellent — tough, cheap, forgiving. For small slicers it is the wrong trade: edge retention is average and it cannot get as hard as 1084 or 52100.

Free: the one-page stock size chart

Bar sizes for ten common knife patterns, weight per inch for every standard flat bar, and quick heat-treat numbers for the usual carbon steels. Print it, tape it to the grinder.