Any guesses on what this stainless is?

Odds are they are 316 stainless which is pretty standard for that industry.

It will not heat treat and is a pain to drill but it does polish well.
 
I brought this old thread back after reading some of the discussion about magnetism and stainless steel.

After I got these blades, I found that they are magnetic, so not 300 series, right? I've made a couple of kitchen knives out of them without doing any heat treating at all. As is they just barely fail the brass rod test if I put a ton of pressure on them. They have worked great in the kitchen for months now. The edge holding is ok, better than our cheap kitchen knives, and not quite as good as our Henckels knives. I can also tell you that they are very tough to drill and grind.

So are there any other ways I can try to figure out what I have? What if I treated them as if they were carbon steel? Heat a piece up and water quench it. Will that tell me anything?

Thanks for the help.

Ryan
 
The temperatures for heat treating stainless steels is several hundred degrees higher than non stainless blade steels. They have to be soaked at those high temps for various times, depending on the type, before you proceed with tempering etc.


Edited to add: It's bad enough guessing what tool steels you have when making a knife, but at least they seem to respond to similar HT methods.
Stainless on the other hand does not respond to getting it cherry red and dunking it in the ole transmission fluid.

If you don't know the exact type it is, and unless it's just something for yourself, I'd just use it for pommels, guards and the like.
Differing stainless steels vary greatly in heat treat requirements and are not worth letting out to the public as a finished knife. That's how stainless has gotten such a bad name in certain circles anyway, poor steel choice and bad/improper heat treat.
 
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