San Mai billet from Amazon

[Daniel Swanson]

Has anyone ever used the San Mai White 2 or Blue 2 bar stock from amazon? It says the core is hitachi steel, and the cladding is low-carbon. Will this make a cool etched pattern like the awesome San Mai blades I see on here? I don't know how to forge weld yet (plan to learn at some point though), and the damascus billets I see for sale are too expensive for me, but these look pretty reasonable. I'd be doing stock removal and heat treat in my Z-burner propane forge with oil quench, etching in FeCl.
Thanks for your advice!

 

[kuraki]

That's from Maker Material Supply. His prices on Ebay are much lower than those on Amazon. To answer your question about a "cool etched pattern" that depends on whether you are talking about the 3 layer stuff or the 22 layer stuff and if you're going to do just stock removal, it's going to be a pretty bland straight line pattern like the pictures he has posted.

 

[Larrin]

Do they get five stars?

 

[Daniel Swanson]

Theres no reviews on Amazon. I didnt know it was Maker Material Supply, but did see the same ones listed on ebay. Cant really find any good pictures of knives made with this stuff but Ill probably give it a shot. I really like the san mai blades with the really wavy line, but I understand that with stock removal I cant expect to get as much waviness in the line. Any other purveyors of san mai billet out there that you know of? Thanks!

 

[kuraki]

These are the examples he has on his Takefu ad. And exactly how a stock removal knife will look with Hitachi san mai (depending on the layer count).



If you want the wavy line, but don't want to make the san mai billet, then just buy the Hitachi steel and forge it to shape like HSC does.

 

[HSC ///]

when I started out, I used maker material supply san mai with mild steel cladding because it was lower cost.
it works great, I've even parkerized the blade.
and yes you can quench in warm water.

this is the 22 layer Damascus suminagashi forged and etched.

 

[Daniel Swanson]

when I started out, I used maker material supply san mai with mild steel cladding because it was lower cost.
it works great, I've even parkerized the blade.
and yes you can quench in warm water.

this is the 22 layer Damascus suminagashi forged and etched.

or

when I started out, I used maker material supply san mai with mild steel cladding because it was lower cost.
it works great, I've even parkerized the blade.
and yes you can quench in warm water.

this is the 22 layer Damascus suminagashi forged and etched.

 

[Daniel Swanson]

I think that 22 layer one looks pretty cool. I might pick up a bar and try my first attempt at forging.