Carbon/Stainless Damascus

[B.V.]

Question regarding damascus made of O1 and 316 SS.....

Does carbon migration occur between SS and carbon steel?

Will the addition of the SS make the blade tougher than a blade of O1 alone?

Just curious.....thanks for any help on this!

Brad

 

[deker]

Odds are (and please, somebody correct me if I'm wrong here) that the 10-14% Ni in the 316 is going to retard significantly (if not stop entirely) any carbon diffusion across the weld boundaries. What you'd end up with would be definite hard/soft zones.

There may also be issues of it wanting to destroy itself in quenching, but you'd have to experiment to see about that. I know that certain combinations of stainless and high carbon in a Foster-Style san-mai have caused the high carbon core to literally split down it's length.

-d

 

[B.V.]

Thanks Deker. A good friend gave me a piece of the stuff. Of course I have no experience with it and had never heard of the combination before. I am trying to decide on what type of blade to "try" to make out of it. If your interested, maybe I'll bring a piece of it with me out that way and we can give it a try.

Brad

P.S. That "New pattern" on you site is the heat!!!!