Fiber Laser Marking Fail! (Newbie question)

[InkBlades]

Hey everyone, I am just starting out in blade making, so any help would be appreciated!

I have tried annealing my high carbon stainless steel knife with a fiber laser, but whenever it comes into contact with water it rusts.

I have been researching the proper techniques for corrosion-resistant laser marking on stainless steel and fiber annealing seems to be the recommendation. I did read that you might not be able to use stainless steel with high carbon when annealing, but then how are the big brands marking their chef knives?

Has anyone had success marking their stainless steel knives that get washed often?

Thanks
-B

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

You'll need to passivate the etched portion to form a new layer of oxides. You can read a bit about some different methods here.

https://www.esi.com/media/1188/whit...-laser-passivation-for-medical-technology.pdf

 

[InkBlades]

Baryonyx, thank you for this info it was really helpful.

Do you know of any vendors that could add laser passivation into the laser engraving process?

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Can't say as I do. But doing a little googling turned up this quote:

The short answer to your question is that fiber laser systems are a pretty good solution to dark marks on stainless steel. That type of laser mark is what is referred to as a “stain” mark. The laser marking mechanism is that the laser beam heats the surface of the stainless rather than cutting into it and the resulting heat forms an oxide layer. The more passes from the fiber laser, the thicker the oxide layer and the darker the mark. Fiber lasers have a pulse width of around 100 to 120 ns and that pulse width range allows for laser stain marking at reasonable marking speeds.