high crome steel question

[Eric M Ericson]

I have a pile of scrap silver steel, (like w-1 but with a high crome content) you keep talking about problems with forge welding and crome, so

here are my questions?
can it be forge welded at all?
at what process?
at what temp.?
what problems can I expect?



I was looking at some of the old threads. talking about using steel salvaged from old wood working tools, no one was realy sure why there were forge welding problems, but they thought that it had to do with cromium content.
the answer is silver steel. it's not quite stainless it does rust some, bit nothing like w-1 and it will hold an edge
It was in use from about 1890- 1960 you can identify it by the color of a freshly ground piece held to a known sample of w-1

 

[Eric M Ericson]

I know you guys have had problems with this stuff,
but I'm crazy (it's that stupid gene again) I don't want to throw this stuff away.

I'm sure some of have tried it, can you tell me what you have done and about what I can expect?