Thanks Kirk

(sure, make me do the work.... chuckles)

15n20 is a type of steel with a typical chemistry of: C (carbon) 0.75%, Mn (manganse) 0.75%, Si (silicon) 0.25%, Ni (nickel) 1.5% and the rest being Fe (iron). Can't tell how it works or how good of a knife it makes (never have used it).

1095 makes good knives all by itself. In fact, your best bets are the 10xx series of steels. They are all simple carbon steels, easy to work and not very prone to have problems if worked to hot (some alloys crack if they are worked to hot or do other undesirable things). For knives, you probably don't want to use much below 1060, though some use 1040 (which makes a soft knife).

I'm a beginner myself, paraphrasing what others have told me - use it at your own risk.

'eya Gebo,

15n20 is a solution hardened steel about the equivilent of 1075 with some other stuff (think band saw blade). Will make a decent balde on it's own, far above that of a rr spike you were talking about in the email. Most hammer welded damacus these days is a 50 / 50 mix of 15n20 and 1095 or 5160 (60's nuscle car leaf spring) and 1095.

Step one is beat up and burn up a spike or two, after a few lil modifications to your fire pit. I have a whole lot of 1084, some 1095 and lots of 52100 on hand here, plus a buch of "lesser" steels like 4160 and som "mystry metal" as well. Let me kniw what you need.

An afternoon cup soon would probably be a good idea.