Stainless SAN-MAI 2nd Amendment mkII

[JTknives]

With all the talk about SAN-MAI going on I figured I should poke the bear a little and weld up somthing nice. Made this billet out of 303 stainless and a core of dons W2, hope don can forgive me for mixing his W2 with stainless. This billet was dry welded with no flux and then drawn out from a rather large block. Over all I'm happy with the result and the welds look flawless. There is about .03 on the edge right now for heat treating and then will be ground down to around .005-.010 which will push the weld line up a little higher. The handle will get my cord wrap and a kydex sheath. Enough talking it's picture time

This is the bar of 303 forged out from a 2"x2" square bar

Mating side of 303 ground, being that this is going to be cut in half I onley needed to grind one side. The side that's going to touch the W2.

Here is the W2 forged out

W2 having both surfaces ground, I left the welded bar as it's going to be needed for the rest of the forging.

Now split the 303 into equal length chunks

All stacked up for welding

Good size block of steel

Welded up

Finished billet

Oh nice core

Profiled

Surfaced

Here it is ground and test etched. Not half bad.

Thanks guys

 

[A.McPherson]

Pretty!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[JTknives]

Fixed the pictures

 

[Tom Lewis]

That turned out really nice. How did you get the wavy lines? I have just started making stainless high carbon knives and I am not getting the wavy lines like you have.
Thanks for the pictures.

 

[HSC ///]

question I've been meaning to ask Tom and now JT since this is your post.
Doesn't the carbon steel get overheated in order to forge weld SS on the sides?

regards
Harbeer

 

[JTknives]

Well when it comes to over heating I use my verticle Damascus forge that's pid controlled. I set it to 2300° and run at that heat for welding. This way no mater what the steel will not exceed 2300° Which I needed because I worked 2 bars at once. I like running 2 bars because it keeps things moving even when one is reheating. Here is a picture of my forge and the 2 bars heating up.

On to the wavy weld line. I use a set of aggressive drawing dies. I set the welds with a set of flat dies. I use thoes flat dies to work the material down to about half the thickness of where it started. Also to keep the width where I want it. Then switch to the drawing dies and work it out with thoes. You allready set the width with the flat dies so just stretch it out with the drawing dies. Work your way down the billit, I press about every 1/2" which leaves a wave look on the surface. Then reheat and then press the top of the waves down to the bottom of the wave. Just keep doing this till you have the thickness you want. Being that the carbon core is much softer then the stainless it will keep the wave pattern even if the surface of the stainless is flat. If I did not have a press I would do the same thing with the cross peen on the hammer and the edge of the anvil or the horn, but the edge of the anvil works slick for this if it's rounded. here is pictures of my dies, my drawing dies are made from the shanks of 1" diamater HSS end mills.

 

[Tom Lewis]

JT, thanks for the explanation. I will try that next time.

Harbeer, concerning overheating the carbon steel, making Damascus heats the steel at the same temperature and for a lot longer than welding the stainless to a high carbon core.

 

[HSC ///]

Harbeer, concerning overheating the carbon steel, making Damascus heats the steel at the same temperature and for a lot longer than welding the stainless to a high carbon core.

Isn't that temperature of 2300 F max past the burning temp of this W2 carbon steel?
I'm not trying to be difficult here but learn.
If this can be done correctly, it's within my future to learn this.

Here is why I'm asking, I was told by a MS maker that to get SS laminated to a high carbon core is very difficult to do without overheating the carbon steel, and the only person who might know who how to do this properly is a guy named Devin Thomas.

So tell me what I don't know.

thanks

 

[JTknives]

I think it comes down to the atmosphere in the forge. If you have extra oxygen in you forge then at the higher temps you will in fact burn the steel. But in a fuel rich environment I have not seen any of my steel burn. I run my forges rich as I prefer the benefits such as reduced scale. About the fact that over heating the steel is bad I will say yes and no. Yes is bad but no it's not permanent. Over heating the steel will cause grain growth but that's easily fixed with thermal cycling. So it's a necessary evil that we must repent of befor heat treating.

 

[Tom Lewis]

I don't know about W-2 steel. I use 0-1 and 1084 for the core. Ed Caffrey in a post said he sets his forge to 2370 degrees to forge stainless to high carbon steel.
I'll say again, making Damascus takes longer at a heat of maybe 2300 degrees and does not permanently damage the steel.

 

[Thadbow]

Very nice, thanks for sharing!

 

[JTknives]

Heat treated the blade and the transition zone really popped. Tempering now and will finish grind tomarow.

 

[Tom Lewis]

That is beautiful. Do you plan to etch the blade in acid?

 

[HSC ///]

I don't know about W-2 steel. I use 0-1 and 1084 for the core. Ed Caffrey in a post said he sets his forge to 2370 degrees to forge stainless to high carbon steel.
I'll say again, making Damascus takes longer at a heat of maybe 2300 degrees and does not permanently damage the steel.

thank you, I'll research further when the time comes and query Mr Caffrey
I'm a long ways off to get into my own San Mai but am very curious