How To Heat Treat 52100 / 100Cr6 steel

How to Heat Treat 52100  (European name 100Cr6)

52100 High Carbon Ball Bearing Steel – 5×50×500 mm

52100 (European designation: 100Cr6) is a legendary high-carbon steel renowned for its toughness, edge retention and clean, fine grain structure. Originally developed as ball bearing steel, 52100 has become a popular choices for custom knifemakers looking for a reliable forging steel with excellent performance.

With better edge retention than for instance 1084 or 80CrV2 this holds a good edge. While not up there with ApexUltra this is a steel still known for great edge retention. (ref: Knifesteelnerds.com "Knife Steels Rated by a Metallurgist – Toughness, Edge Retention, and Corrosion Resistance" ) 

How to heat treat 52100:

• for optimal performance, anneal before heat treatment but it is ok without
• 815-820 C with 15 min hold time
• Fast oil best - medium speed oil ok at edge thickness (1 mm)
• Temper 2 x 2 hours at 200 C for approx 61 HRC

This is a suggestion taken from the excellent article by Dr Larrin Thomas on Knifesteelnerds.com, a brilliant resource for knifemakers. Do yourself a favour and look up his article on 52100 heat treatment for much more detail on DET anneal, type of quench oil impact, final hardness based on temperature the blade is quenched from etc. The man is a legend, check it out here: LINK