Welding Stellite 6K to 316L/304 ss ?

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shqxk

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Mar 26, 2012
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I plan make a fixed blade of 6K but this material is too short (also very expensive) I want to make a full tang knife so I'm not sure if this material can be properly weld to 300 series ss.

Anyone have idea or experience with this material I would appreciate your help. Thanks
 
If you don't get a good answer here, try one of the welding forums … or call a local welding shop that works in stellite. I bet it will be more expensive than getting a longer piece of stellite.

Personally, I have doubts about it being a strong weld. It would have to be done with TIG and stellite filler rod. Pre-heat and post-heat would be tricky. The weld area would loose some of the 6K's hardness.
 
You can tig weld high speed steel, but you've gotta be fast and efficient. I also doubt the overall durability of the weld, but if it's seated in the handle material, just to get more tang, it'll probably be ok. I have seen HSS tig welded for tool bits, like brazing carbide, however, too long in the puddle and HSS seems to want to fall apart.
 
Stellite is already hardened from the mill. I think I gonna do silver alloy brazing instead. Seems like two different metal welding together is too much of a mess.
 
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It's used to hard face 316 parts. I have no idea how strong a simple butt weld would be.
 
Yeah since you're not worried about de-tempering that area, brazing is probably the easiest option.
 
Stellite is used as the cutting edge on some specialty turning tools. Google "big ugly tool" and you can find a video of the silver soldering process. A "butt" brazed joint of blade to tang may not be strong enough. If this was my project I would think of a way to make a longer joint, maybe the blade has a SS spine...
 
Mahoney said:
Stellite is used as the cutting edge on some specialty turning tools. Google "big ugly tool" and you can find a video of the silver soldering process. A "butt" brazed joint of blade to tang may not be strong enough. If this was my project I would think of a way to make a longer joint, maybe the blade has a SS spine...
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Yes that is exactly what I thought. I think now I gonna do stellite edge brazing to Ti spine.

 
One thing to consider with a long brazed joint like that is the thermal expansion coefficients of the two materials you are joining. If they are very different you can build up a lot of stress in the joint as it cools, which can sometimes cause the joint to fail.
 
Yeah, good luck getting that Stellite to braze to 6al4V. I'm not saying it's impossible, but I can guarantee you, it's not a casual process for a novice brazer.

Most people consider titanium to be impossible to braze. That's not entirely true, but, it ain't simple.
 
javand said:
Yeah, good luck getting that Stellite to braze to 6al4V. I'm not saying it's impossible, but I can guarantee you, it's not a casual process for a novice brazer.

Most people consider titanium to be impossible to braze. That's not entirely true, but, it ain't simple.
Click to expand...

Wow realy? Great to know that before I cut the Ti. my friend who gonna do it is quite an experienced brazer but if Ti is really that difficult to braze then I properly change my mind and use others material.
Do you have any thing suggest on this? would 420 or something like that will be easier to braze?
 
shqxk said:
Wow realy? Great to know that before I cut the Ti. my friend who gonna do it is quite an experienced brazer but if Ti is really that difficult to braze then I properly change my mind and use others material.
Do you have any thing suggest on this? would 420 or something like that will be easier to braze?
Click to expand...

You'll definitely have a much easier time brazing steel to steel certainly.
 
I will caveat that I have never tried this specifically, but I doubt it will work. Looking at the composition, I am very dubious that you could TIG weld it with any alloy I can think of as filler. A butt braze for a tang will be very weak.

If you have to try, I would heavily fillet the butt, and try brazing, though I would probably do a forge or oxy-fuel braze in lieu of TIG. I would grind flush and go from there. My gut says it is a bad idea, but it may work. The real problem here is having to grind down the braze to flat. If you could accept a large bead around the junction, it should be fine for most use scenarios, but hiding such a joint in your scales would be a real pain.

Also, the location of your joint will look strange as you will see your braise metal (presumably a copper or silver alloy) in a full tang construction.

If you are gonna try it, I recommend destructive testing on an offcut prior to constructing the knife.
 
With the right alloy, you can solder or braze almost any 2 dissimilar metals. But you need to do some research. Some alloys are suited to a tight joint, some are better placed in a "V" joint. I would start by contacting the maker of your stellite, they should have some suggestions or literature available. Otherwise, there are a lot of brazing alloys out there, it's just a mater of finding one that wets both stellite and titanium well. And you will need the right flux, not just any random flux for some alloys. You can braze with torch or TIG, TIG is a bit cleaner, but it all depends on how hot you have to get the metals to melt the brazing alloy. Some melt at a low enough temperature that a propane torch is all you need.
 
Missed the updated design. More likely to work like that. A strong butt braze requires longer legs than does a weld.
 
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