MagnaMax Chemical Composition

[Stuart Davenport Knives]

Here is the cert I got from Niagara Specialty Metals. I won't publish the heat number, it's not necesarry for the post, but WAY COOL for NSM to send that data to the end user, as well as the exact comp. My experience with NSM has been wonderful. I cannot commend, or recommend NSM, enough. Quality USA company, employee owned!!!!!! Hope to be able to do more business with them in the future. What a great experience it was talking with Jeff and Bob (back in the day). Like I mentioned in another thread here on ShopTalk, take a look at that healthy dose of niobium!

Carbon: 2.060
Manganese: 0.460
Chromium: 10.300
Vanadium: 7.290
Moly: 1.880
Nitrogen: 0.200
Niobium: 2.630
Cobalt: 0.550
Tungsten: 0.130
Nickel: 0.150
Silicon: 0.440

 

[Mecha]

look at that healthy dose of niobium!

Whoa O.O

That blood panel is kind of insane.

74% iron

 

[Robert Erickson]

Here is the cert I got from Niagara Specialty Metals. I won't publish the heat number, it's not necesarry for the post, but WAY COOL for NSM to send that data to the end user, as well as the exact comp. My experience with NSM has been wonderful. I cannot commend, or recommend NSM, enough. Quality USA company, employee owned!!!!!! Hope to be able to do more business with them in the future. What a great experience it was talking with Jeff and Bob (back in the day). Like I mentioned in another thread here on ShopTalk, take a look at that healthy dose of niobium!

Carbon: 2.060
Manganese: 0.460
Chromium: 10.300
Vanadium: 7.290
Moly: 1.880
Nitrogen: 0.200
Niobium: 2.630
Cobalt: 0.550
Tungsten: 0.130
Nickel: 0.150
Silicon: 0.440

Too bad that Manganese is so high, otherwise you could make some wicked hamon with that steel

Maybe that's the next project for Larrin, making W2 like Don Hanson's stuff. Call it Magnamon

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

No hamons ... For two big reasons:

1) ,MagnaMax is a stainless steel, which won't create a hamon.

2) Even ignoring the stainless issue, way too much other alloying. A hamon requires as little besides carbon and iron as possible. All those alloy elements create deeper hardening. You want a low/shallow hardening steel for a hamon.

The perfect hamon steel would be - .84% C, 99.16% Fe. That is virtually impossible to make. Tamahagane and similar small steel melts from raw ingredients come closest, with trace elements of manganese, silicon, phosphorous, and sulfur that are naturally found in the charcoal and iron sands used in the melt. Even tamahagane has around .1% Mn. The closest to tamahagane is Hitachi #1 white, which has .3% Mn.
In manufacturing modern steel, manganese makes the process work better by deoxidizing and desulfuring. Since Mn is in all scarp steel, which makes up the bulk of steel mill "raw" material, it is in all modern steel to some degree. The lowest Mn modern steels for a hamon is W2, with .3-.4% Mn..

 

[Stuart Davenport Knives]

Pretty sure Robert was joking. But especially with that much Mn and Cr....no hamon for MagaMax!

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

I figured he knew, but others may not understand the parameters of a hamon. With low enough allowing, a hamon will form pretty much on its own ... as Don Hanson III has shown many times.

 

[Robert Erickson]

Sorry, my bad for poor attempt at humor.

 

[Stuart Davenport Knives]

Speaking of auto hamon....I just got one on Wofram Special on one of my Verde Ranch Hunters. Been a while since I've used a shallow(ish) hardening steel.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Yes, Wolfram Special is an interesting steel. It has about 3.0% alloying, with tungsten being the major part. I have had a hamon with it which sort of surprised me. The tungsten pins the grain boundaries to prevent grain growth, but the low Manganese allows shallow hardening.