Would there be any benefit...

Keith Montgomery

Keith Montgomery

Joined
May 9, 2000
Messages
29,205
...to forging stainless steel?

As much for a novelty as anything else, I have been considering getting a knife with a forged stainless blade. I personally doubt that there would advantage to forging stainless, but Sean McWilliams sure thought there was, and it seems that Karl Schroen does as well.

I have read a little bit about this topic in old threads in the knifemaker forums, but was just wondering what if there were any other thoughts on this subject.
 
I am of the opinion, that forging stainless is something only bored or masochistic knifemakers do. ;) :D
 
They do. I am not sure to what extent these blades are forged and do not know the reasons that they do it. Many of the German kitchen cutlery companies for their stainless blades as well, but to tell you the truth, I'm not sure exactly what they mean when they state that they forge their blades.

In the late 60s early 70s I used to read about a lot of makers forging 440C. This practice has definitely not carried through to today. I read where Mike Lovett stated that these blades had problems with stress risers and fractures.
 
Is the German knife companies not referring to that they drop forge blades??? It is like putting a hot piece of metal in a mold with a top mold coming down on it to form the rough blade. I thought Gil forged it down into flat bars to work from there. maybe my old mind or what I've read in years past. Mike
 
Henckles does drop forge their blades. It saves a MAJOR amount of steel from becoming grinding dust. Big expense savings.

I have forged some satinless. I still do forged CMP3V, mainly because of the novelty, and that few others will. The problem with forging stainless steels is that most are air hardening, and do not move easily under the hammer. They are "red-hard". If you allow the temperature to get high enough to austenitize the steel ( the temp where the ally elements are in solution and will form martensite when cooled rapidly enough), it will try to harden once it cools, and if forging is performed when this happens, the steel usually crumbles, or at least cracks. So the steel needs to be kept above the austenitizing temp ( high enough to give a window of time to forge before it begins to harden), or below it so it won't air harden to the dergee that it will crack. So, it becomes more trouble than it is worth since little if any performace benefit is obtained. If the forging isn't done properly, it is detrimental to the steel.

Forging produces a lot of stress in teh steel as well. To remove forging stress, most steels are normalized and annealed. Annealing stainless steels takes several hours and the temperature must be closely monitored to do a proper job. Most forgers don't have a digital furnace, so again, it becomes more trouble than it is worth.

I have forged ATS-34 and 440c, and it just isn't worth the time to me. I would rather do stock removal with S30V if a custoemr wants stainless steel.
 
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