Stainless Steel Alternatives?

ColsonCustoms

ColsonCustoms

Joined
Oct 19, 2015
Messages
76
Is there such a thing as a non chromium based mostly stainless steel? Mainly for the purpose of creating a non reactive kitchen blade with simple steel type heat treating properties. 15n20 seems to be about the best option I have found so far, with 52100 and D2 close behind (factoring in current heat treating set up). If it were stable, couldn't you add more nickel to 15n20 and have it be pretty much stain resistant?
Also, has anyone messed around with forging straight nickel onto a high carbon steel core for a san mai style blade? not sure if this is even doable.
 
Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but check out ZFiNit steel from Alpha Knife. The stuff is a Nitrogen steel and is supposed to be amazingly stain/rust resistant. John showed me a kitchen knife they had made with it at Blade show a few years back. Edge holding and toughness is supposed to be roughly equivalent to 52100.
 
A corrosion resistant steel that heat treats like (or close to) a simple steel. Something that can be brought up to temp, soak at or around critical for a few minutes, then quenched and tempered with decent results. Like Lo said, don't have an oven set up yet, so stainless is pretty much out of the question as is stuff like 52100 until the components for my new forge get in.
 
15n20, 52100 are not corrosion resistant. They will corrode almost as quickly as O1, 1095, etc. D2 has significant Cr content, not enough to be technically stainless. The nickel in 15n20 is there for added toughness, and will give the blade a brighter look to it, but is not there for corrosion resistance.
 
Maybe titanium with a carbidized edge?

I really don't think you're going to find a hardenable stain"less" steel that's easily heat treated without an oven AND/or a cryo treatment. Your best option would be to get a few blanks together and outsource the heat treat with somebody like Peters. (Assuming your in US... filling out your profile might help us recommend a more local heat treater).

Cost per blade really isn't going to be terribly expensive, especially if you have several of them at once, and if you're selling them you can easily recoup the cost.
 
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