Super steel welding

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Woodreaux3

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Mar 28, 2026
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New to the forum so very sorry if this is a dumb question or the wrong place …

Obviously the powder metallurgy steels have created steels with exceptional qualities but they are very expensive. For knives that will not be used for hard applications like bushcraft, would it be reasonable to weld a less expensive steel for a full tang fixed blade? I have all types of welding options available, so I’m not talking about just a basic stick weld. Thanks for your input!
 
For a full tang won't the metal be visible on both top and bottom of handle? Can you make that weld disappear? I'd suggest trying it with a small scrap of your blade steel and the steel you wish to weld to it and see how well you can make the weld disappear. Perhaps the best idea would be to use a hidden tang which would use very little of the expensive blade steel, and with perhaps 1" to 1.5" of blade steel an extra bit of cheap steel could be welded on there since it would be hidden inside the handle.

I don't expect strength would be an issue with either case since it seems you're well versed with welding. The handle scales also adds a good bit of strength.
 
what do you mean by very expensive?
 
This was very common back when steel was expensive... But that basically stopped with the industrial revolution.

The time and effort required to weld two pieces of steel will cost more than the actual steel itself.

The most expensive mono steel at pops knife supply right now is just over 100$ for a 1/8" x 1.5" x 3'. The cheapest grade of steel at online metals is just over 10$ for the same size.

Let's say you make a 6" knife with a 3" handle, that's 3" of each steel. The blade will cost 1.50 and the handle would cost 15¢.
If you make the whole thing out of blade steel, it would cost 3$.

Not much savings per knife... Just buy the steel you want and don't try to pinch pennies, you'll just waste your time...
 
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welding, when it comes to blade weapons, is well suited to creating things like maces, morning stars, interpretations of weapons made from teeth...really, there are endless possibilities for a welder. A regular knife? I can think of a few cases where it could be good, but none that would end up in a standard type knife.

speaking of which, I saw some new welding machines that have recently come to market and they're looking fairly small and idiot proof. As idiot proof as a tool like that can be for a world with a lot of idiots in it, but easy to operate.
 
Lorien said:
what do you mean by very expensive?
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A.McPherson said:
This was very common back when steel was expensive... But that basically stopped with the industrial revolution.

The time and effort required to weld two pieces of steel will cost more than the actual steel itself.

The most expensive mono steel at pops knife supply right now is just over 100$ for a 1/8" x 1.5" x 3'. The cheapest grade of steel at online metals is just over 10$ for the same size.

Let's say you make a 6" knife with a 3" handle, that's 3" of each steel. The blade will cost 1.50 and the handle would cost 15¢.
If you make the whole thing out of blade steel, it would cost 3$.

Not much savings per knife... Just buy the steel you want and don't try to pinch pennies, you'll just waste your time...
Click to expand...
Pretty sure he’s talking about the newer “premium/super steel/expensive whatever tf you wanna call it” choices like magnacut, rex121, etc and the question is valid. assuming we use your figure of 6” blade with 3” handle so 9” total. 1/8x1.5x3ft of magnacut is 155 off pops, that for sake of argument (i know it never works out mathematically this perfectly but just roll with me here) would get 4 blades out of it. If it was possible to weld on a 3in tang of a diff material you could get 6 knives out of that same bar. If he was making it 100% out of magnacut at that price he’d be spending an additional 77.5 for the same amount of knives for a total of 232.5. That’s not an insignificant amount.

I’m not saying it’s possible or a good idea to do so mind you i’m just saying that his question is valid
 
For a majority of the steel choices we got nowadays, yes the price difference/potential savings is so insignificant for the added time and effort that it’s pointless, but for the more recently developed speciality stuff that’s pretty pricey all around, it’s a pretty valid question
 
As said, it isn't really much of a cost saving .

Where welding with an expensive steel is practical is adding a stick tang (hidden tang) to a piece of very expensive damascus. I make the stub on the damascus blade 1" past the shoulders and weld on a piece of cheap steel or scrap pieces of the same steel from cutting out the profile. This often allows getting two blades from a bar of damascus instead of one.
 
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I would want to anneal, after welding. That can be quite a process with those fancy steel’s. I usually braze extensions on.
 
Well I only have a basic understanding of these things, but if wanting to spend less on the expensive steel, could a solution be to buy thinner (cheaper) bars of the good steel, and do a san mai using other less expensive steel for the outer layers? It's my understanding that that's one of the reasons san mai was created in the first place. Or have I just watched too many Forged in Fire episodes? lol.
 
texpat said:
Well I only have a basic understanding of these things, but if wanting to spend less on the expensive steel, could a solution be to buy thinner (cheaper) bars of the good steel, and do a san mai using other less expensive steel for the outer layers? It's my understanding that that's one of the reasons san mai was created in the first place. Or have I just watched too many Forged in Fire episodes? lol.
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properly forge welding 3 pieces steel together and getting it drawn out evenly especially on the newer high carbide alloys that don’t really like to move under the hammer unless you got a powered solution + the following thermal cycle is infinitely more time and effort than welding on a solid tang to a blade
 
Hella Bread said:
properly forge welding 3 pieces steel together and getting it drawn out evenly especially on the newer high carbide alloys that don’t really like to move under the hammer unless you got a powered solution + the following thermal cycle is infinitely more time and effort than welding on a solid tang to a blade
Click to expand...

Ohh okay, didn't think about that angle, thanks!
 
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