WHICH STAINLESS?

D

Drop point

Joined
Jan 11, 1999
Messages
73
I have been making my guards, bolsters and butt caps out of either nickel silver or brass since i first started making knives. I now want to try some out of stainless steel and was wondering which type stainless you think is the easiest to work. I see a lot of 416 bar and sheet stock listed by various suppliers . From your experience, which is the best?
Thanks in advance,
Mike C


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mconner@luminatorusa.com
Killing the dog wont cure the bite.

 
I use 303 stainless that I can get from Texas Knifemaker's Supply. They have it in bar stock and pin material as well as tubing for thong holes. It seems to work out OK.
To be totally honest, as far as working the 303, there isn't THAT much difference between working with it and nickel silver.

I came across some 316 stainless that a friend of mine had laying around his shop but I haven't used any of it yet so I really can't comment on it. Can anyone comment on 316SS?

CLWilkins
 
316 will grind ok but if your peening in oins it will cold work harden most likley before you get them peened.

As for a good al around bolster stock 416 is great . Most suppliers carry pin stock to match so you dont see the pin in the bolster after peening. The 303 will work good alos its free machining anf the pin will peen ok..


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Web Site At www.infinet.com/~browzer/bldesmth.html
Take a look!!!




 
one big reason 416 is so popular is A) you can heat treat it...the engravers like that and B) its 400 series=magnetic...you can chuck it on your magnetic chuck on the old surface grinder.....try doing that with 300 series....the 300 series is true stainless, it has no iron in it.....thus no rust....
 
My personal preferance is another nickle alloy called monel, it is a high tenperature, corrosion resistant nickle alloy which matches the colour of 440 C perfectly. It is soft enough to close around the 316 pins that I use , grinds and polishes well.

The downside is that it is incredibly sticky when drilling so you have to use lots of high sulphur cutting oil and the lowest speed possible, in my case 120 RPM. Milling on the other hand is best done at high speed.

It is much more expensive than 304 or 316 which I have also used and usually ordered
through a specialty metal supplier but I like it and it looks good.

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george
 
Guys: Just to throw something else into the mix: I prefer 410, which is really just 416 W/O the sulphur-helps make the soldering easier and better.

RJ Martin
 
Gentle posters. A good source of information on stainless steels, their composition, and how this affects their qualities and applications is here at this URL:

http://www.ssina.com/student.html

Hope this helps, Walt
 
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