Stainless hamon

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Bench Kranked Knives

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Apr 12, 2015
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Hello, I'm new here, but not new to knife-making and forging. However, can anyone tell me if you can clay temper stainless? I've been toying with the idea of a stainless dagger with a hamon for a while now (mainly for aesthetics). I know how to set up the clay on a double edged blade, but is it actually do-able on that kind of steel? I was thinking it might be too sensitive to warpage for that, but I really don't know.
 
With all the alloying in stainless, it is extremely difficult if not impossible to do. Stainless has 13% Chromium, which just kills any chances of a hamon. Now to be clear, I am referring to an actual "hamon", not DHL. A differential hardening line may be possible on stainless....but I doubt even that.
 
Stuart is right, you can't get a Hamon on SS. The closest thing is a San Mai billet with some type of stainless clad to a carbon steel core. When done right, it looks even better than a Hamon, in my opinion.
 
Darrin's suggestion sounds best IMO.
Thomas Haslinger developed a way to get a differential hardening line with stainless, but I'm not convinced that it does anything good to the steel.
 
A better question is why? Deep air hardening steels have advantages, and getting a Hamon is a contradiction to those advantages. For a dagger with a hamon, 1075, W1 or W2 would be much better choices. Even 1050/1060 would work. Don't fight the steel.
 
A-2 is not a stainless steel. But I understand your comment, Chuck. A-2, with it's decent Cr content, should not produce a hamon, but a "quench line" is possible.
 
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