Came upon some 306 stainless...Knifeable?

S

spyderman

Joined
Dec 11, 1999
Messages
55
Hello all,

Im rather new to knife making, and made a trip to the local Blacksmith shop hoping to find some nice 1095 or something like it. Instead I left with 2 feet of 306 stainless. I havent found anything that puts this steel in a knife, which brings my question, can I make a heat treatable knife from it, is it even workable? I suppose if it wont heat treat I can get some practice with my files, and if its too hard then I guess i just wasted some money. TIA for any help.
 
Spydie...

That 300-series stuff is good for knife furniture such as guards and pommels. Generally-speaking, if you can stick a magnet to it, it'll harden, but the 300 stuff is gummy, and leans toward good machineability rather than toolmaking. I use 303 stainless on my knives all the time, just not for blades. Anything 400 and above will serve you well for a knife blade.
 
I think that you can use this for guards, caps or bolster material. It may be a little hard to work but will be very stain resistant.

As far as making a blade out of it there are much better stainless steels out there.

Joe Foster
 
No, it's not. It's stainless with no carbon in it. It could be used for bolsters, but the problem lies in the fact that you probably couldn't find matching pins to hold them on.

I'm curious! Why would you get something like that, when you went looking for 1095?

Here's a place to get some 1095, or other types of blade steel at reasonable prices. Talk only to Terry Summers. If he's busy, leave a message, or call back.
http://www.admiralsteel.com/products/blades.html

I just remembered that 1095 is being phased out of production, They might still have some, or you'll have to settle for 1080, which is almost identical, and is the replacement.
 
No more 1095? Holy smokes, I better get an order in! I've seen Don Fogg make a tanto with 1095, that had a smokey-frosty-white hamon... gorgeous! Its a damn fine steel. You say 1080 isn't in any danger of disappearing? What about 1084? That's a decent compromise too.
 
1084 is definitely being phased out. I had no idea 1095 was, too. :eek:
 
No magnet sticking to it, eh, live and learn. I dunno, i guess youth and the fact that I was intent on leaving the place with some metal in my hand. I have some O-1 on hand, but waiting 'till x-mas when santa brings my 2X42. I takes what I finds, I guess i might just end up accumulating a bunch second rate stuff material at this uninformed rate. Thanks for the help everyone and the quick replies, maybe i'll start making some guards or something hahah....whew. I gotta learn and this seems the best place, thanks again. David.
 
fitzo said:
1084 is definitely being phased out. I had no idea 1095 was, too. :eek:
Click to expand...


I could be wrong about that! I just remember someone posting a notice, I think it was here, saying that is was no longer going to be made.
I notice that Admiral still lists is, so maybe my memory is playing tricks on me, again.:eek: ;)
 
I ordered 1084/80 from Admiral months ago. They don't have that anymore and sent their replacement with an analysis sheet. It was basically 1072.

So if 1095 is going to 1080 and 1080 is now 1070..... That's a big difference from 1095.

Steve
 
I just called Admiral to find out about this, and it's 1084 that was discontinued, NOT 1095.

Oh well, time to reserve that spacious room at Golden Acres rest home. I heard they have the best jello.:barf: ;)
 
See if they have a wing available with 240 outlets where we could make a playroom.... ;)
 
Actually I'd heard that 1095 was going out of production too. Must be another internet rumor and I'm glad to hear it's false. Other side of that coin is Admiral. I've always had a tough time ordering from them. Always got what I ordered in semi-reasonable condition, but it took effort.

Maybe I'm just too crotchetty for polite society but I like to order from places that make it simple: Place the order, get it. Not have to be passed from one part of the organization to the next, have separate orders for different steels, packaging that would take a saw to open and steel in a nice curve inside... My experiences with Admiral are part of why I pretty much stick to O1 these days - Tool and Die has a lot of it and they know how to conduct business in a manner that's friendly to people with a low tolerance for futzing around. I wish they carried 1095. No one's perfect!

And here I hijacked David's thread to whine about Admiral. Sorry about that. Anyway, David be happy to accumulate every bit of material you can. You never know what will be useful down the road. I have more boxes of "material" in my shop than I do stuff that I actually use. But crap that just collected dust for years has eventually become totally valuable. I built my disk grinder out of stuff no one else would ever have kept. So don't feel like you wasted your effort taking that piece of 304. I have a lot of it too, and it gets used for all kinds of stuff like tool fixtures, knife parts, other projects, you name it. You did good. And keep your eyes peeled for knife steel too!
 
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