What about carbide

[custommachineman]

I am a machinist and break a lot of tools both HHS and carbide. I have figured on welding the HHS together to make a knife. I was also thinking of grinding up the carbide and trying to hammer some into the edge when at welding heat. Or perhaps graphite powder sprinkled on the edge. I am just thinking you could increase the carbon or hardness along the edge by embedding these carbon particles in the metal. Something like Stellite 6K. Has anyone tried this or something like it?
I tried forging carbide but it didn't work. I was not surprised!! But I had to try.

 

[dalee100]

Hi,

As another machinist. Carbide tooling is made by a sintering process. It might then be used as is or ground to final shape and sharpness.

And since carbide tooling is non-metallic, it's not going to weld to steel. (Though I've had some pretty spectacular tool failures that seem to indicate differently). You could I suppose, grind up the carbide into a super-fine powder and add it to a melt. But if you add too much, it will only weaken the resulting steel due to a more porous structure. I'm not a metallurgist, but I think it doesn't stay in solution and tends to separate out.

dalee

 

[Keith_H]

Some people complain about d2 being hard to sharpen, imagine carbide! I don't think that it would be possible to incorporate it into a steel knife (correct me if I am wrong) and I don't think that a solid one would be worth the effort.

Case hardening the blade would have a minimal, possibly negative affect because there comes a point where the iron will not take on any more carbon into a solution and forms in the grain boundaries.

A blade from m2 might be nice, but I would not want to weld cutters together.

 

[custommachineman]

I was just playing with the prospect. I dont really think anything will come of it.

 

[Carcara]

It has been done. Daryl Meier has welded Diamonds into a eutetic steel laminate. Diamonds are a carbide...

 

[JasonSCarter]

Most Forges are a "De-Carburizing" atmosphere, we're the carbon is being burned out. and no osmosis DOES NOT happen in the forge. so rubbing your piece down with a pencil wont help a bit, but to slick it up in the tongs and make it hard to hold on to. Also most "Carbide" tooling is made of Tungston Carbide. so what you want is to find a steel high in tungston but not too high... (O1 for example usually has 1/2 of 1% (.5%) of tungston in the mix. along with the same amount of vanadium.) it forges readily and makes some wicked blades. Keith has suggested an M series tool steel while it can be forged it is not easily forged it has a VERY narrow forging window (like on the order of enough time for 2-3 QUICK blows from the hammer and back in to the fire it goes!) while we are on carbides, a carbide is an element bonding with carbon. When you harden plain steel (W1 for example 1% carbon 99% iron) you are making Iron Carbides. in the form of Plate martensite. Get your Machinary's handbook out and read up on metalurgy and heat-treating also do a search on bladeforums - Kevin Cashen with google, and read the entire threads, you will come away with more knowledge than you can digest in one sitting.

Jason

 

[dalee100]

Hi,

I'm going to probably show my ignorance here, so please teach me if I sound foolish. Got to learn somehow!

To weld two objects together would imply a homogeneous bond. I don't know of a process that would be able to join such dissimilar materials in a homogeneous fashion. The heat and pressure required would seem to require a process beyond what would be available outside of a laboratory. I can see and understand that he embedded the diamonds very securely. But I can't see a true weld happening.

dalee

 

[Lycosa]

Warren Thomas mastered it. Please check out his blades. They cut like crazy---I have one, I know.
Tnx!

 

[JasonSCarter]

Dalee basically to my knowledge I believe he threw em into the melt and when it came out...the diamonds were embedded into the steel's matrix. I imagine it would've been similar to making a knife out of the diamond coated sharpening steels... hmm that brings up a nice project maybe!

 

[custommachineman]

Thanks for all the info. I am going to try working with carbide to see how it comes out. Just for the fun of it.

 

[dalee100]

Dalee basically to my knowledge I believe he threw em into the melt and when it came out...the diamonds were embedded into the steel's matrix. I imagine it would've been similar to making a knife out of the diamond coated sharpening steels... hmm that brings up a nice project maybe!

Hi,

Thanks for the explanation!

dalee