San Mai Cores

Greenberg Woods

Greenberg Woods

Joined
Dec 27, 2013
Messages
2,694
Hello again! So I am planning to get back into the forge welding and making of San Mai, and i came across a little issue. I plan on using 15N20 for a jacket, just given the corrosion and acid resistance the nick gives me, along with a nice contrast line. My question was what to use for a core? This isn't just about performance, but also sellabilty. The simplest core would probably be some 1084, but I was wondering what you guys have used. I was considering W2, 52100, and my favorite steel, O1. Just looking for your view of it, on what sells and what works.
 
I consider "San Mai" to be those laminates that have the jacket as a non-hardenable steel - like stainless steel or wrought iron.
By definition - San Mai - "San Mai generally refers to knives with the hard steel hagane forming the blade's edge and the iron/stainless forming a jacket on both sides. In stainless versions, this offers a practical and visible advantage of a superb cutting edge of modern Japanese knife steel with a corrosion resistant exterior."

Other three layer blades I consider to be called simply 'laminated steel' or three layer forge welds.
I know it's splitting hairs, but I think the wording "san Mai" gets confusing, and sometimes misleading.

But as far as the core goes, I like Aldo's old school 1095 with lots of manganese because of how black it etches and keeps the etch.
I'm also going to try CruV, as I have heard it etches very dark, as well.

 
hellspawn415 said:
I was talking to Aldo about him making his new version of Blue, and I suggested Aldo Blueno steel. That is some stuff I am for SURE going to be buying.
Click to expand...
Ha ha! Great idea! I'm sure Aldo Blueno steel would be a good addition to the Aogomi line!
 
I was talking to him, and he was understandably worried about buying several hundred Tons of a steel no one has used before. I thought asking for preorders or something might help raise their confidence in rolling out their own product.
 
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