any forgeable stainless steels?

There are some stainless (high chromium) steels which can be forged, but there are apparently some tricks and secrets involved in forging these steels. Devin Thomas and Mike Norris (Stamascus) in the USA are both known for their stainless pattern welded steels, as is Damasteel, a Swedish company. These three are the most common sources for stainless pattern welded steel used by knife makers today.

The result is pretty materials which are very stain resistant, but probably do not push any performance standards for blade steels. The main pupose behind forging stainless steels is to create 'stainless' pattern welded steel because there is a demand for it among knife users, not to make a functionally superior blade. Very few bladesmiths bother to forge stainless steels.

For more information I would recommend reading these threads:

Stainless vs Carbon Damascus

Devin Thomas Damscus suitable for everyday knife?

They both contain a great deal of good information addressing your question, particularly the post by Art Washburn (Beowulf the Great) in the first thread.

Good luck, there is not a lot of good information out there about this question. It seems that those who do figure out how to forge stainless steels keep some secrets to themselves. Others seem to think it is a waste of time. Hope these links help :)

Para
 
For many, many years....Gil Hibben forged 440C into rough shape and then ground it. You cannot do a lot of things with complicated modern steels that you can with a lot of the simpler ones....like edge quench, etc.
 
I believe Randall forges 440B. As stated by others 440C, and 440V have also been forged.

HTH:)!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top