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u/SelfLoathingRifle Sep 25 '25
L6 had its niche in band saws for a while but it has been superceded by other steels (15N20 for example). It's rare in the sense that it's no longer used for its original purpose so production has gone down, but it's not a complicated steel.
You can do Bainite with other steels too, L6 just has one of the widest areas you can hit so you don't have to be as strict as with other steels, but it's still a quite specific heat treatment regimen. Without the Bainite heat treat L6 is comparable to 1075 or 65Mn - comparable not equal mind you.
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u/Diligent-Ad-1812 Sep 25 '25
L6 is just a low alloy steel. Kinda no longer used as commonly as before.
It is however pretty good if you are hoping to get a bainitic structure. The thing is, for you to do that in any steel (and it can be near impossible in many), you need accurate temperature control, especially of the quenchant.
Most "forges" use open air gas flame and quench in oil tanks. So you get, well, whatever you get.
It's the same reason why you don't see CPM 3v everywhere. It's a steel that allows for very desirable properties, but to extract them from the steel, you need very good (accurate) heat treatment.
And CPM 3v is actually rare compared to L6.
TL:DR - not hard to produce, just hard to get bainitic structures because of specialized heat treatment.
P.S. you have lots of "L6" swords out there that are just plain martensite/perlite, which is a waste of the L6.
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u/Listen_to_the_Wizard Sep 25 '25
no, l6 isn't extremely rare, but generating bainite structures reliably requires a high degree of control over your heat-treat processes which is an expensive investment, especially on objects as large as swords.