Stamped marks and stress risers

Shing

Shing

Joined
Feb 2, 2003
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I read a few times that name stamps were not often used for marking knives because they could act as stress risers and lead to blade failure and chemical or electroetching is better because it does not concentrate stress. But I have seen lots of forged blades with stamped marks and a lot of blades are forged so they are tougher and more resistant to stress. Has anyon`e had a blade failure that could be attributed to stamped marks?
 
Stamping forged blades has been common since at least the medieval and post medieval periods in Europe and as still a popular way for smiths to mark their blades.

I stamp the tang ricasso..thickest and flattest part of the blade...then just prior to ht as a 'just in case the stamping caused stress' idea... I do a final thermo cycle/normalise.......Having bent and snapped some 100 blades or so as part of my own testing..I have never seen one fail at or near my stamp.



Be interesting to hear what others have to say.

Thanks.
 
I've stamped my mark on over 1500 blades in the last 24 years and never had a problem, not all were forged. I think you could have a prob with some of the high alloy stainless steels though.
 
I would think it would also depend on the shape of the actual stamp. If there were alot of sharp inside corners or if the bottom of the stamp is sharp, then it's be more likely to cause a problem then if everything is radiused, even if the radius is hardly visible.
 
I stamp my name on all my knives, and I've never had one fail (yet, knock on wood). I use 154CM or CPM154CM, btw.
 
I remeber seeing a stainless wedding cake knife or some such that some one tried to tweek a little and it broke at the stamp. But I'm sure that was a rarity.

If it's done rite there is no real differance between etching and stamping. I etch because it's next to the last thing I do, not to avoid a stress risser. I like the idea of marking the blade at the very end of construction and my etch is just as deep as any reasonable stamp. It also offers me more freedome, but it's a personal choice, nothing more.
 
Thanks for the replies, I stamp my blades because its quick and traditional, good to hear it dosen't weaken the blade either.
 
Shing said:
Thanks for the replies, I stamp my blades because its quick and traditional, good to hear it dosen't weaken the blade either.
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It does weaken the blade. There's really no way around that. You're moving and compressing metal in a focused area, which causes stress. It doesn't usually (and never has for me) caused a problem, though, because you're usually placing the stamp on the strongest part of the blade, which mitigates its effect. This is really only a concern, however with notch-sensitive stainless steels, which are usually more brittle to begin with, than softer, more flexible carbon steels. It has never caused me problems, but it could.
 
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