Forging stainless steel

K

Kimball_Knife_And_Tool

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Jun 28, 2019
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Hey,
I’ve done a little bit of knife making. Both forging and stock removal. I have a preference for the stainless steels, and so I’ve been focusing on stock removal. I know stainless steel can technically be forged... but how hard is it actually to do correctly? I’ve heard that if done incorrectly, the steel will form microscopic weaknesses. Thoughts please? Thanks!
 
There usaly is a real good reason to forge stainless besides just wanting to. It’s VERY picky when it comes to temperature and it can crack or crumble if forged to hot or to cold. It’s not uncommon for the forging window to only be a few hundred degrees. This is not something you can eyeball in the forge. Then you have the issue of annealing it after forging which is a completly diffrent monster to deal with. It usaly involves taking it to around 1700-2000° and cooling to 1000° at a rate not exceeding 20-40° per hr. Then once at 1000° you turn the oven off and let cool. This entire process can take days. And if you don’t have some kind of gas shielding or other means to protect if from oxygen in your oven there is a good chance all you will have left is a pile of scale.

So like I started out saying. Normally it’s only done for a special reasion.
 
JTknives said:
There usaly is a real good reason to forge stainless besides just wanting to. It’s VERY picky when it comes to temperature and it can crack or crumble if forged to hot or to cold. It’s not uncommon for the forging window to only be a few hundred degrees. This is not something you can eyeball in the forge. Then you have the issue of annealing it after forging which is a completly diffrent monster to deal with. It usaly involves taking it to around 1700-2000° and cooling to 1000° at a rate not exceeding 20-40° per hr. Then once at 1000° you turn the oven off and let cool. This entire process can take days. And if you don’t have some kind of gas shielding or other means to protect if from oxygen in your oven there is a good chance all you will have left is a pile of scale.

So like I started out saying. Normally it’s only done for a special reasion.
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Gotcha, thanks!
 
I have seen aebl integral chef knives and I actually drooled
That's reason enough for me to try it.but not til I have a press
That would be the only reason I would try it.it wouldn't be for fun anyway
 
There are increasingly more people making stainless steel damascus it seems. While I love and prefer (non-stainless) carbon steel knives myself, it's arguable the average person will have less troubles with corrosion using a stainless steel knife.

I think there is possibly an element of marketing involved when it comes to some forged stainless knives. Monolith does a lot of forged stainless (I believe mostly AEB-L) kitchen knives, and I think part of it is their target demographic probably finds some romance in buying a forged knife.
 
John mc c said:
I have seen aebl integral chef knives and I actually drooled
That's reason enough for me to try it.but not til I have a press
That would be the only reason I would try it.it wouldn't be for fun anyway
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I would like to see that blade. I am aware of .198 thick AEBL and I think that’s the thickest you can get. Of corse you could stack it up but why do that much work if your not going after a pattern.
 
What industry does and what home forgers do are very different things. The equipment alone in industry runs in the millions of dollars.

I had assumed that many folks forge weld thicker metal on the tang and mill the bolsters from that. The blade is still thin stock.
 
Volkert Forge said:
New Jersey steel baron has .250 AEBL I believe
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Thy had talked about bringing some in but I’m not sure it went through or not. I think a minimum mill run is around 10,000lbs.
 
JTknives JTknives They have it in stock I just checked. I bought some .250 nitro-v like 2 months ago when they had both for sale but I think there out of nitro-v right now
 
Volkert Forge said:
JTknives JTknives They have it in stock I just checked. I bought some .250 nitro-v like 2 months ago when they had both for sale but I think there out of nitro-v right now
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Hum weird. I talked to my guy at uddaholm (makers of AEBL) and he said the thickest thy roll is .198 and that is only rolled by request when thy get enough orders. We mentioned AKS as one of their largest consumers of the .198. So I’m not sure where thy are getting the .250 but keep in mind uddaholm is not the only one that makes that alloy but thy are the only one that can call it AEBL. So I wonder if what thy sell is actually AEBL or a similar alloy from another mill.
 
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Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
What industry does and what home forgers do are very different things. The equipment alone in industry runs in the millions of dollars.

I had assumed that many folks forge weld thicker metal on the tang and mill the bolsters from that. The blade is still thin stock.
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Even with the plethora of expensive equipment, the factories are not cranking out high end stainless knives. Theoretically they could forge stainless steels which do not lend themselves to fine blanking. The economics seem to dictate the use of pedestrian steels in most factory kitchen knives. Even the fancy San Mai custom kitchen knives top out at VG-10 cores.
My best kitchen knives are Stellite, some of which is pourable and some of which is stock removal.
The straight knives in the picture are Stellite 6-K. The folders are 6-B. My best long kitchen knives are Boker Cera-Titan. They have Titanium blades with Titanium Carbide inclusions for wear resistance and Silver inclusion for improved ductility.
 
So an integral aebl knife is forge welded aebl bolsters?
I assume the bolsters are aebl as it's a seamless perfect match
Done same as stainless San Mai with a weld all around edges then forge welded?
 
I bought a .250 bar of what Steel Barron sold as AEBL at Blade Show this year. I have not used any yet.
 
I seem to remember Peter Bruno telling me that had a mill willing to roll to ,250”. Don’t quote me on that though.
 
milkbaby said:
There are increasingly more people making stainless steel Damascus it seems. While I love and prefer (non-stainless) carbon steel knives myself, it's arguable the average person will have less troubles with corrosion using a stainless steel knife.

I think there is possibly an element of marketing involved when it comes to some forged stainless knives. Monolith does a lot of forged stainless (I believe mostly AEB-L) kitchen knives, and I think part of it is their target demographic probably finds some romance in buying a forged knife.
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Ha ha! I just ran across this looking for some more info on forging AEB-L... Yes we do a lot of forged AEB-L, yes it is because it is forgiving, easy to work, inexpensive, readily available, forges well, and has great edge characteristics and people do like it because of the nostalgia and "romance of the craft".

Nowadays though we are also forging our own Damascus of 1084 and loving it! Something we could't do efficiently before we had a hammer.

Peace!
Zack Worrell
Monolith Knives
 
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