Can stainless be forge welded to Carbon steel?

G

GhengisChad

Joined
Dec 11, 2013
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Hello all,
First post on this site. I've made some knives out of 440c stainless using material take-off method. I have set up a small forge, to do more advanced projects. Anyway, I am curious can stainless steel be forge welded to carbon (as in sandwiching the high carbon between stainless steel). The reason for this being two fold, first I like making longer knives (and/or short swords when I get around to it) and I want to make some steel that will hold a great edge but still have some flex to it should that be required. I could use a lower carbon steel, but I thought I could use a low carbon stainless and inherit the corrosion resistance. The idea being that by sandwiching the high carbon between a low carbon stainless steel with good corrosion resistance properties, it would give the knife some flex and have it resist rust. Any thoughts/comments/suggestions are most appreciated. Thanks
GhengisChad
 
Yes. A lot of people laminate a high-carbon, non-stainless core with low-carbon stainless on the sides.

- Chris
 
Hesparus,
Could you point me in the direction of someone who has done that before? I'm looking for some advice and/or instructions, I'm sure I need all I can get!
Thanks
Chad
 
also I've read on another sight that to get the proper weld between stainless and carbon you can lay the pieces on top of each other, weld all the edges together, then forge weld the piece, then use the resulting piece for the knife.
 
GhengisChad said:
also I've read on another sight that to get the proper weld between stainless and carbon you can lay the pieces on top of each other, weld all the edges together, then forge weld the piece, then use the resulting piece for the knife.
Click to expand...

Yes that is correct. You need to seal out all oxygen to get this to work. Off the top of my head I have seen this work from:
Bill Burke
Bill Wiggins
Burt Foster
Claudio Cass
Karl Anderson
 
I never understood that process. If you're worrying about rust on a blade the worry should be about the cutting edge not the sides which don't do the work !
 
Mike Turner is a member on this forum, I've bought cru-forge clad in stainless from him.
From my limited understanding of the process, this is not beginner level stuff to pull off.
Really nice guy, message him.
 
It isn't a question of CAN you forge weld a stainless san-mai billet with a carbon core ..... it is a question of can YOU forge weld a stainless san-mai billet with a carbon core.

In practicality, it take a good deal of experience and large forging equipment (welding forges, presses and power hammers, and TIG welders) to do this type of weld.
 
bladsmth said:
It isn't a question of CAN you forge weld a stainless san-mai billet with a carbon core ..... it is a question of can YOU forge weld a stainless san-mai billet with a carbon core.

In practicality, it take a good deal of experience and large forging equipment (welding forges, presses and power hammers, and TIG welders) to do this type of weld.
Click to expand...

I agree with Stacy with the entire post except Tig is not necessary in my experience. Many makers use mig just fine. You just need to grind off the mig weld after the forge weld is complete.
 
what Karl said. nothing really special needed but some forge welding experience.

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and finally
201 nickle/416 stainless damascus welded over 52100 core all done in my forge

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Wow,
I've made some knives using material take off, and am just now getting into forging, but those are beautiful Mr. Anderson, and Mr. Burke. I'm curious, do those patterns come out naturally in polishing or do you have to do the whole clay covering thing like the Japanese?
 
Ummmm, no. I'm thinking you haven't fully grasped the San Mai process, here.
What you see is the bottom edge of the stainless "jacket" that has been welded on both sides of a simple carbon core.
There is no clay involved.
The undulations on the bottom of my San Mai is the result of the drawing dies on my press.
Some folks do other physical manipulations of the stainless jacket like cutting groves prior to final forging or such.
Bill's process is even different from both of those.

GhengisChad said:
Wow,
I've made some knives using material take off, and am just now getting into forging, but those are beautiful Mr. Anderson, and Mr. Burke. I'm curious, do those patterns come out naturally in polishing or do you have to do the whole clay covering thing like the Japanese?
Click to expand...
 
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