Nickel alloys for damascus mix?

G

Guy Thomas

Joined
Feb 1, 2000
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Hey, I posted this over in the Neo-Tribal forum also and wanted to give it a try here also.
While looking for a supplier of pure nickel for making damascus (not that I'm making any yet) I got side tracked by some of the nickel alloys. Two in particular seemed to be good candidates for this use, Inconel (72% nickel, 14-17% chromium, 6-10% iron) and Hastelloy (47.5% nickel, 21.8%chromium, 18.5% iron, 9% molybdenum).
Seems like these would work as well as pure nickel when combined with steel like 1095 and L6 but I have no practical knowledge in this area. What do you think? I'd like to hear your opinions (informed or otherwise).-Guy Thomas

P.S.-What about the nickel-copper alloys like Monel (65% nickel, 32% copper, 2% iron)? -Guy Thomas
 
You'll have much better luck welding the monel. The chromium in the other two will casue you some problems.........namely their weld temp will be higher than you would want to take carbon steels (1095, 1084, etc). I've done several pieces with monel, and have had few problems. Hastaloy was another story. Straight laminates are not too bad, although the welding temps were higher than I would have liked to go. The real problem came in manipulation........welds shearing with even a very mild twist. I wound up making it a random pattern, and calling it good. The 15N20 that a lot of us are using is a good choice. Basically it's nothing more than 1075 with 2.5% nickel. Excellent contrast, and all hardenable material in your billets.

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Ed Caffrey "The Montana Bladesmith"
ABS Mastersmith
www.caffreyknives.com
 
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