If you’re a sword craftsman I’m sure you already heard of the EN45 HIGH CARBON STEEL, I’m not a sword guy, but I love to explore and search the different types of steel, well I did bump into the EN45 Steel while reading a Reddit post, so I was wondering, what is this steel, what is its chemical composition, properties, and of course is it good for knives?
If by any chance you have the same questions, well this blog post might be helpful, I gathered some good piece of information that you can find down below, all you have to do is keep reading.
EN45 is a high carbon alloy steel usually used to made swords, automative leaf springs, heavy spring parts, and some customized knives, it’s very suitable for oil hardening and tempering.
EN45 steel composition
- 0,64% of Carbon: It improves hardness and wear/corrosion resistance, but a high amount of it decreases strength.
- 0,4% of Chromium: For tensile strength and Edge retention, and enhances corrosion resistance and wear resistance.
- 0,1% of Molybdenum: Increase Machinability and strength.
- 0,4% Nickel: Improves toughness.
- 1% of Manganese: Increases hardness and brittleness.
- 2,2 % Silicon: Improves Strength.
- 0,035% of Phosphorus: Increases strength.
- 0,04% of Sulfur: Increases machinability.
As you can see, the EN45 steel has a mixture of Carbon, Chromium, Manganese, and High silicon, which makes it a very strong spring alloy.
EN45 hardness (Rockwell hardness)
EN45 Hardness is 48-50 HRC.
If you wish to know more about the meaning of “HRC” or “Rockwell hardness” read this blog post
EN45 steel properties
According to the chemical composition and the HRC of the steel, the EN45 Steel has the following features:
EN45 Edge Retention: With a maximum hardness of 50HRC, the steel can offer a good hardness, and a quite good edge retention (not very great).
EN45 Corrosion Resistance: Not very great for corrosion resistance with only 0.4% of chromium.
EN45 Wear Resistance: With 0.65% carbon and a mixture of Manganese and Silicon this steel offers some good wear resistance.
EN45 Sharpness: The rule says the harder the steel, the harder to sharpen it, the EN45 is a hard steel that wouldn’t be so easy to sharp.
EN45 Toughness: Great toughness thanks to the mixture of Carbon, Chromium, Manganese, and silicon.
EN45 steel equivalent
The closest steel in performance for knives, in particular, would be the 5160 Steel, they re both alloy steels that offers strength and wear resistance and comes with normal Edge retention.
Is EN45 steel good for Knives?
In this article, I didn’t speak much about “knives” since this steel is not the best pick for knives, but as I mentioned earlier, it’s an excellent pick if you wish to forge a sword, the high level of silicon is what a sword needs, but hey don’t take my word as granted you can ask professionals too, the pieces of information I shared with you is based on others experience and analyzing the chemical composition, and finally if you either a knife or sword fan don’t forget to always take good care of your craft (I’m speaking about oiling and cleaning, so don’t go lazy and keep them nice and shiny).
Conclusion
In this article, I didn’t speak much about “knives” since this steel is not the best pick for knives, but as I mentioned earlier, it’s an excellent pick if you wish to forge a sword, the high level of silicon is what a sword needs, but hey don’t take my word as granted you can ask professionals too, the pieces of information I shared with you is based on others experience and analyzing the chemical composition, and finally if you either a knife or sword fan don’t forget to always take good care of your craft (I’m speaking about oiling and cleaning, so don’t go lazy and keep them nice and shiny).
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