'Sheffcut' and 'Wolfram Special' two 'new' steels from GFS in the UK?

I've got both in stock. Fantastic steels for thin hard blades. Pretty much English equivalents to shirogami and aogami, same cleaniness, they have pretty much the same exact workability as shirogami 1 (sheffcut) and aogami 1 (wolfram special), and are approx. 5x cheaper.

I'd be over the moon if they were available in 5-6mm thickness, I think they might be in a not too distant future, would be great for thicc san mai billets.

But for stock removal they are perfect as is, buy without hesitation.
 
Joshua Fisher said:
View attachment 2225895
First test blade out of Wolfram, you can see some really cool banding going on when etched. This was stock removal and was just brought up to austenizing temp and hardened. 1500F for 5 minutes and quenched in parks 50 tempered twice at 400F put me right around 63 using relative hardness testing with chisels. Followed GFS recipe minus my temper was a touch higher due to me estimating the C to F conversion on the tempering temp, they recommended 200C which is 392F, if I had bumped my temper down a bit to 375-380 I’m sure it would have been 64+ Rc. I’ll test edge retention and stability after putting a handle on this one. I did all my bevel grinding post HT and it was definitely harder to grind with all the tungsten at least compared to simpler steels but overall didn’t take that much longer. I’d say it’s slightly harder to grinder than simple stainless like Nitro-V/Aeb-L/SF100 I’ll make sure to post back after doing some testing but figured I’d share initial impressions and was excited about the banding pattern that showed up, I might hand sand this one and see if I can bring out the pattern more versus just a belt finish.
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What type of acid would you use for etching?
 
Welcome Raul.
Fill out your profile so we know a bit about you and where you live. It helps us with better answers.

This is a year-old tread, but Josh may well reply. When pulling up threads as a new user look at the posting dates for the last several posts to see how old the thread is.

Most makers use ferric chloride, which we just call FC, as their etchant. The Custom Serach engine in the Stickys will find many threads on mixing and using FC.
 
Thanks for welcoming me to the community.
I am the production manager of a knife making workshop. Don't know much about knives, but I'm probably the geekest one here, so I give a hand researching.
 
I use FC and water 1 part FC stock (42°Baume) solution to 3 parts water.

Where is your knife shop located?
 
Still always looking for user reviews of Wolfram.
I have a request, and I was Supposed to buy some of this steel this week, but I got kicked in the Nards.......
Seeking for some more positive thoughts on it, while I sort some stuff out
 
I have a previous post on forging Wolfram spec (and 26C3 and W2) and how it turned out.. the WS cracked and crumbled on me but the others turned out fine. After HT, the 26C3 had bacon edge (VERY thin) and eventually cracked :-(, the W2 had a small chip and I ground the edge down on it. It was determined that the heat was too high during forging (I didnt check it, thats my fault) but my plan is it retry in the next couple of weeks with more temp control. It did move well and would probably have turned out a nice blade.
I havent tried the Sheffcut or silver steel yet but I suspect they will be similar and require constant temp control but should turn out quite good blades with care.
 
Not from maker point of view. But, I got my wife a nakiri in sheffcut from Steve Callari for Xmas. I stropped with 5μ about a month ago. (Purposely not sharpening to see how it holds up, at time of strop it was denting ripe tomatoes but still cutting on pull) She uses it at least 5 times a week. It had some really cool banding new and has since taken a very nice patina.
 
I don't forge Wolfram. I do stock reduction with the bars. Makes a good knife. Can't really say it is all that much better than 26C3 or any other good kitchen knife steel, but it worked fine for me.
 
Crag the Brewer said:
Still always looking for user reviews of Wolfram.
I have a request, and I was Supposed to buy some of this steel this week, but I got kicked in the Nards.......
Seeking for some more positive thoughts on it, while I sort some stuff out
Click to expand...
It is great stuff.

Don't forge too hot (not over 2000f ideally). Normalize hot, one grain refining cycle around aus temp, and a quick soak below austem and in vermiculite is a very foolproof way to prepare the steel optimally for quench.

I prefer parks 50 to parks aaa for it, it is definitely slightly more shallow hardening than most common steels.l and it likes the faster quench for optimal results. Definitely quench below 1500f for optimal toughness (I do 1450-1480 depending of uses). Lower temps leaves more carbon in carbides, can be nice for an extra bitey edge but will get softer at same tempering temp compared to 1475f for example (400f yields 62hrc at 1440f compared to close to 64hrc with 1475f), and that steel shines over 63hrc.

I did work previously with higher carbon steels with similar tungsten levels (aogami 1, aogami super, 1.2562) and this steel has the same edge retention but is noticeably tougher at same hardness, definitely one of the best low alloyed steels out there.

I haven't yet compared it proper with apex ultra, but my guess is that apex ultra at high hardness (64+hrc) is both a little bit tougher and has somewhat higher edge retention, at the price of being a little trickier to work with in annealing and being 3 times more expensive, they are similar to finish on aluminium oxyde abrasive (both hard to finish).

I don't use apex ultra much (havee a 5mm thick bar since a year) as it is a little too deep hardening for my tastes, whereas wolfram is more akin to aogami work wise which I like for my own workflow, but maybe apex ultra suits your needs better.

Wolfram is maybe just a little easier to forge weld if that matters to you (it does to me), and could be a top contender for damascus work with 15n20 as it does etch quite dark, and a 50/50 mix of both would make for a very tough and long lasting edge.

Edge wise at higher hardness it gets a decently tough, very fine but very bitey edge easily and isn't too hard to sharpen with regular waterstones. My cook clients love ir and it also works well for gardening tools, should be a great steel for outdoor/hunting knives too at 63hrc.
 
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