laminating steel

Matt Shade

Matt Shade

Joined
Nov 24, 1999
Messages
4,981
This is kind of a What if... question since I have no way of trying it out, but I was wondering what you guys though and maybe some of you can.
I have some swedish carving knives that are made with a 3 ply lamination of swedish scalpel steel in the blade. The center section is hardened to Rc64 and the outer 2 peices are a more mild steel. I was wondering if it was possible to laminate stainless and tool steel together. You could make the center out of something like M2, A2 or D2 so it would be tough and hold an edge. The outer 2 peices could be lower grade stainless thats better for corrosian resistance, like 420 or something.That way the only part of the knife that you have to worryu about rusting much is the cutting edge and you keep that polished any way.it would probably only be good for folders since larger knives would be more likely to delaminate since they get used harder and get more flexing and chopping done with them. So what do you guys think? Go ahead and call me an idiot if you want, I really don't know anything about forging damascus and stuff like that and was just wondering.

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Fix it right the first time, use Baling Wire !
 
As long as the goal is strictly cosmetic that works. However, the edge is unprotected and will deteriorate with corrosion. Stainless Damascus is a better approach as it give more protection, right down to the very edge of the blade. Devin Thomas and Stamascus make beautiful steels that are both eye appealing and functional.

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Jerry Hossom
knifemaker
www.hossom.com


 
Cosmetics don't really matter to me at all. I was thinking more in terms of getting the higher performance lower corrosian resistance steels into corrosive enviroments with less maintnance. I figured that coating the blade seemed to work pretty good on the M2 AFCK's but the coating doesn't hold up very well, whereas a peice of steel thats a decent thickness isn't going to scratch off.
I've heard of stainless damascus, but I thought it was 100% stainless even the cutting edge.If the middle is one one of the good tool steels then that would be better since the thinner layers would come down closer to the cutting edge. I was thinking the fewer the layers the lower the production cost too.


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Fix it right the first time, use Baling Wire !
 
Matt, Stamascus' steel incorporates D2. But any stainless damascus is an entirely different animal than the steels they began with. In the welding process, they incorporate more carbon, even into the low carbon stainless steels, so the resulting matrix is generally a better steel than any of those in the beginning stack. Did I mention they are also drop dead beautiful?

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Jerry Hossom
knifemaker
www.hossom.com


 
I just finished a knife with Devin Thomas double stainless damascus. He uses 440-c and 304 in his new stainless. He used aebl and 304 in the past. The 2" wide piece I bought from him was $37.00 per inch in his spirograph pattern. That pattern is hard to make. I cant even figure out how he does it. It makes for a beutiful blade! Bruce
 
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