First san-mai weld

chumaman said:
Sorry mate I couldn't resist, this song instantly popped into my head :p
And the name of that music genre is Nu Metal ;)
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Just keep joking with me :D Soon I will make knife for you ..... san mai
of my own work , on my own made grinder , carbon cloud of my own and HT in my own made oven :p
 
Well , I do it again.........successfully:) Clean steel , good weld, right temperature and light hammering is all it need to weld .
Now what ? I read whatever I found here and on net about this san mai adventure .Chance for crack is 99 % in sandwich like this :mad:
I think that I will not take that risk and I will do edge quench ? I will grind some bevels to expose core and cover everything else with thick layer of high temp.silicone /1400 celsuius/................and cross finger :D
6mm thick .....san mai
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Next one in real stainless steel and some M42 HSS for core .....?
 
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Natlek, that is a beautiful San Mai with the core looks to be perfectly centered! GOOD JOB! Looking forward to the quench.
 
Ken H> said:
Natlek, that is a beautiful San Mai with the core looks to be perfectly centered! GOOD JOB! Looking forward to the quench.
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It is easy to keep it centered Ken .I don t draw steel , just make weld ....That s one of reason why I use piece of steel close to final shape/size of knife...
I will hold on quench ,I need to think more how to do that ,even edge quench would not be easy to do safe...if anything is safe enough with this ?
I weld in my service /there I have tig welder/ small piece of hardened HSS steel for core and 304 stainless from sides............Just to see if HSS would cracks...Nope , I grind weld ,separate pieces and seems that HSS survived welding easy .Next project would be ..I would buy two cheap and big stainless kitchen knife and use it for san mai with HSS ....That should work I hope ...:)
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Ken H> said:
Natlek, that is a beautiful San Mai with the core looks to be perfectly centered! GOOD JOB! Looking forward to the quench.
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Like it ........................:D quench in oil from 830 Celsius ...

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Well,not that much this one ... sayonara san-mai san :mad: Right in the middle like laser cut :D

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Next one thin sides stainless with thick core carbon steel.............. must work !
 
Maybe you can grind it out and still have a pairing knife in there?
 
FredyCro said:
Maybe you can grind it out and still have a pairing knife in there?
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There is always other knife inside :)
Well , here it is .....I will use hidden pins because I don t wanted to drill new hole since I reshape handle :D
Somehow I start to like this san-mai ..... :poop:
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Looking good, I think it would probably flow better without the finger rest on the spine and be more versatile, looks perfect like a small fishing and fileting knife (bird and trout).
 
No, I would remove just the bump and leave the sweep of the blade as it is. Also that small bump at the choil need to go IMHO.
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Do you know why it cracked like it did, stainless pulled on the core as it cooled quicker?
 
FredyCro said:
Do you know why it cracked like it did, stainless pulled on the core as it cooled quicker?
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It is carbon steel ,it change volume when transform to martensite , I think .Probably both ..................This was supposed to be edge quenching , but obviously I submerged it more than I should :mad:
 
Well this is quote from another topic ...........https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/quenching-san-mai.1313608/
I follow that advice , but .....it crack .Any other advice ? I don t give up I will try and try but .......:)
stezann said:
Thanks Stacy, pretty thin either way.
JW, when you quench mild steel you don't have the huge expansion of the martensite transformation, but the high carbon slab would grow, iirc, 4% volume.

The real problem is when you get you san mai central layer split in half lenghtwise in case you have thick mild slabs aside...that's one of the reasons why i prefer to grind before hardening san mai.
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Guys i will try another one .Can I just sand blast to clean rust from this carbon steel before i use it for new san mai ? Hand sanding work , but it is slow.........
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Last week, I looked at a thread about a belt grinder you built. Why wouldn't that and a magnet to hold the bar work?
 
Hubert S. said:
Last week, I looked at a thread about a belt grinder you built. Why wouldn't that and a magnet to hold the bar work?
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This steel is only 1.5mm thick , chance to destroy it if i use grinder is 90 % ..I know my self :D I m almost done with my surface grinder ,but i can t wait ....san mai fever :)
 
Your chances of success are probably 9% better than mine! If you have the fever, hand sand away! I hope this new attempt does not crack on you!
 
Hubert S. said:
Your chances of success are probably 9% better than mine! If you have the fever, hand sand away! I hope this new attempt does not crack on you!
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No crack any more ......I m 100 % sure :) Edge quenching.....Thick layer of 1500 Celsius high temperature seal for stove will do job . I try that and it works.
 
Very good thread! Thank you for tagging me! Looks like you have done exactly what I have been wanting to do. I have learned a lot by reading this.
You said you used stainless rod with your arc welder to weld edged, is that correct?
Also when forge welding would you focus on one section of steel then flip and hammer on same section on the other side? Or try to weld all one side then flip over and hammer other side? I'm sure this part is trial and error.
Thanks for the help, and great thread.
 
spaknives said:
Very good thread! Thank you for tagging me! Looks like you have done exactly what I have been wanting to do. I have learned a lot by reading this.
You said you used stainless rod with your arc welder to weld edged, is that correct?
Also when forge welding would you focus on one section of steel then flip and hammer on same section on the other side? Or try to weld all one side then flip over and hammer other side? I'm sure this part is trial and error.
Thanks for the help, and great thread.
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Yes , I used stainless rod with my arc welder , that s all i have in home . In my service i have Mig .....Tig , but ordinary welder do it well ........
When forge welding i use hammer on whole blank .I hold hammer close to head so that I have more control over the blow , not to make deep dents in steel .I m not sure it is necessary to flip over ..........
Clean steel , good weld all around , right temperature/ I used HT furnace for that / and light hammering is all it need to weld .Be sure to weld well, even slightest hole will be enough to make problem . Press parts hard when you weld them .Good luck ......with welding :thumbsup: With quenching luck don t help :D
 
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