Elmax

Yes, tell me where. I did buy a few pieces way back from USA Knifemaker and a couple from Alpha. They were all oversize in thickness. Elmax and M390 are twin steels as far as I'm concerned so it could have been M390 In my books it's the top of the line for edge holding, sharpening and working with. I'm now using some CPMS90V which quite frankly is terrible stuff to work and will not high polish. These steels are introduced and then they are not available in good knife making sizes an d then not at all. Did you try the Baron? If you find some please post where.
Frank
 
As best as I can tell, Aldo pretty much carries either Crucible or the carbon stuff that he has made for him in Germany. AEB-L is the only Voestelpine/B-U product that he carries as far as I know and the strip steel division is a totally separate entity from one that sells the tool steel, PM stuff, N690,etc. Alpha has no Elmax and USA is sold out of some of the sizes.
 
You can find Elmax in 3.8x30x300 mm size on brisa.fi I would ask them if you need different sizes. But it would be worth noting that you can get Niolox (SB1) from Jürgen Schanz (DE) in pretty much any size. I am not saying that it is a direct replacement for Elmax, but it has a very good name and may be worth a try.
 
We have a shipment of Elmax on its way to us.

We introduced Elmax to the North American knife community. It is an excellent steel. However, there were issues with the steel. We told Bohler Uddeholm we would not stock their PM stainless steels until the issues were resolved. Other suppliers continued selling Elmax and did not tell knifemakers about the problems.

We've been assured the issues have been fixed. If this is true we will be stocking Elmax again.

Chuck
 
Alpha Knife Supply said:
We have a shipment of Elmax on its way to us.

We introduced Elmax to the North American knife community. It is an excellent steel. However, there were issues with the steel. We told Bohler Uddeholm we would not stock their PM stainless steels until the issues were resolved. Other suppliers continued selling Elmax and did not tell knifemakers about the problems.

We've been assured the issues have been fixed. If this is true we will be stocking Elmax again.

Chuck
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That's great to hear!
I remember you guys saying something about it being very uneven and tons of mill scale or something last time you tried it.
Hope in comes in in good shape.
 
Alpha Knife Supply said:
We have a shipment of Elmax on its way to us.

We introduced Elmax to the North American knife community. It is an excellent steel. However, there were issues with the steel. We told Bohler Uddeholm we would not stock their PM stainless steels until the issues were resolved. Other suppliers continued selling Elmax and did not tell knifemakers about the problems.

We've been assured the issues have been fixed. If this is true we will be stocking Elmax again.

Chuck
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Chuck, what are the issues with the steel? I still have several bars of Elmax that I purchased from AKS.
 
Chuck, was that the "can" issue or was that the original batch of XHP?
Alpha Knife Supply said:
We have a shipment of Elmax on its way to us.

We introduced Elmax to the North American knife community. It is an excellent steel. However, there were issues with the steel. We told Bohler Uddeholm we would not stock their PM stainless steels until the issues were resolved. Other suppliers continued selling Elmax and did not tell knifemakers about the problems.

We've been assured the issues have been fixed. If this is true we will be stocking Elmax again.

Chuck
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There's a can on it that has to be removed. It's not trivial to remove. If you're just cleaning up the sides to shiny you won't get it all. We were decking it around .010" per side to remove it.
 
Yes, I had to buy oversize. All my sizing is done on a belt and or disc grinder. I was so pleased with the results the extra work didn't bother me. Remember I don't do the batches and only folders.
I will be terribly pleased when Alpha again has some available. Thanks for that Chuck !!
Frank
 
The HIP can was the problem. The HIP can is the can the steel powder is put into and then HIP'ed into a billet. The can is 304 stainless steel. After the billet is formed, the billet is rolled into sheets and the can remains on the outside of the sheet. Nathan posted they were removing .010" per side. We found some can to be up to .017" thick. Sometimes the HIP can caused warping during heat treating.

We felt it was not proper for Bohler Uddeholm (BU) to charge for blade steel and require suppliers/knifemakers to remove the 304 SS HIP can. After we found out about the can, we had all the sheets we purchased blanchard ground. We contacted all the knifemakers who had purchased Elmax with a can and replaced it with ground steel. If we did not contact you, you did not get bad steel. Other suppliers were not having the steel ground. We were getting calls from upset knifemakers blaming us for the can when they had bought Elmax from other sources.

We discussed the problem many times with BU. When they refused to change, we decided the issues were significant enough to stop stocking the steel.

Now we've been told the HIP is being removed after the billet is formed. We will see.

Important lesson to be learned is manufacturers and suppliers MUST be held accountable for the materials they sell. We don't expect atta-boys for doing our job. We do expect knifemakers to hold suppliers accountable when they sell bad/non-standard/poor quality/out of spec materials.

Chuck
 
Kind of late the the party, but what exactly is Elmax? I have heard it referred to as the stainless counterpart to hitachi steels, a simple, very clean and fine grained stainless steel with lots of carbon.
 
^ it isn't a simple steel at all.

And while I agree with Chuck the can is a problem, I wouldn't say it's a quality problem. It is the cleanest most consistent material I've ever used. But, if you've ever struggled to get the wrapper off a piece of taffy and accidently ate a piece of paper you'll understand the frustration.
 
it is a PM steel with a fair amount of alloying elements like 3% vanadium and 1% molybdenum. It has a reputation for being rather tough for a stainless steel.
Greenberg Woods said:
Kind of late the the party, but what exactly is Elmax? I have heard it referred to as the stainless counterpart to hitachi steels, a simple, very clean and fine grained stainless steel with lots of carbon.
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Chuck, why would they roll with the can still on as opposed to "peeling" it after after the billet is "HIP'd" like us neanderthals do with a can mosaic billet?
Alpha Knife Supply said:
The HIP can was the problem. The HIP can is the can the steel powder is put into and then HIP'ed into a billet. The can is 304 stainless steel. After the billet is formed, the billet is rolled into sheets and the can remains on the outside of the sheet. Nathan posted they were removing .010" per side. We found some can to be up to .017" thick. Sometimes the HIP can caused warping during heat treating.

We felt it was not proper for Bohler Uddeholm (BU) to charge for blade steel and require suppliers/knifemakers to remove the 304 SS HIP can. After we found out about the can, we had all the sheets we purchased blanchard ground. We contacted all the knifemakers who had purchased Elmax with a can and replaced it with ground steel. If we did not contact you, you did not get bad steel. Other suppliers were not having the steel ground. We were getting calls from upset knifemakers blaming us for the can when they had bought Elmax from other sources.

We discussed the problem many times with BU. When they refused to change, we decided the issues were significant enough to stop stocking the steel.

Now we've been told the HIP is being removed after the billet is formed. We will see.

Important lesson to be learned is manufacturers and suppliers MUST be held accountable for the materials they sell. We don't expect atta-boys for doing our job. We do expect knifemakers to hold suppliers accountable when they sell bad/non-standard/poor quality/out of spec materials.

Chuck
Click to expand...
 
IMO, Elmax is the most versatile stainless blade steel. When heat treated to HRC 59-60, it is the toughest stainless blade steel. When heat treated to HRC 62, it out cut CPM M4 in CATRA testing.

It is very clean, made with BU third generation powder metallurgy.

I don't know which Hitachi steel you are referring to, but Elmax is much cleaner than the current batch of ATS-34 (which is not saying much).

Chuck
 
jdm61 said:
Chuck, why would they roll with the can still on as opposed to "peeling" it after after the billet is "HIP'd" like us neanderthals do with a can mosaic billet?
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HIP'ing a can on a billet makes it part of the billet. You cannot peel it apart. It would be like trying to separate Damasteel layers.

Chuck
 
This is good to know! I got some from USA knifemaker, I Ordered 177, and it came at .198, so it's plenty oversized to grind to the size I want


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Greenberg Woods said:
Chuck, when you finally get it back in stock, will it still have the can on it? Or will it be clean?
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Alpha Knife Supply only sells steel that is ready for the knifemaker to use. If it is not they tell them to take a hike. This saves the knifemaker from much frustration and having to jump through hoops figuring out why their steel is not doing what it is suppose to.
 
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