Any advice on forging stainless?

[jdlange]

I'm wondering how many people out there are forging stainless steel and what sort of results you have had?

[Mike Hull]

There was a knifemaker, retired due to health problems, who used to forge some stainless steels. The price was high for his knives, but there was no significant improvement in the steel. Plus you open yourself up to chromium, and other heavy metal vapors.
JMO.

[jdlange]

Yes I am concerned about the possible health risks of doing this. It would be on a very small basis, only a few pieces for someone who wants a forge finish on a few stainless knives. I am working out a special hood that I can use on my forge to vent off gases that are produced.

[fitzo]

I forged a Bowie by hand many years back from 440C. It is the only piece of stainless I will ever forge. Here are a couple suggestions:

HC SS is all air hardening, and the austentizing temps are 1850-2050*F, approximately. That means you have to basically forge at welding temp if you want the steel to move. Let the steel cool too much under the hammer and it'll shatter. Thus, keep the anvil very close to the forge. Keep a hot steel block in the forge and switch the block to the anvil to keep it hot while you heat the SS.
Heat hammer-head in the exhaust fire to keep it hot. Be patient, and do maybe 1/3 the work per heat that you will ordinarily do, lest you break the blade. The steel also moves very slow, sorta like O-1 at too low a heat.

After you get a blade forged, check the tables from the steel people carefully, and normalize for a long time. Normalization of SS blades is done somewhere around 1400-1500, and held for a while.

Good luck, and enjoy the project.. you may well find it is an "only time" like it was for me. PS. Mike was right...it really doesn't do a dang thing for the blade...

[jdlange]

Yea, I am just looking for the forged finish on these, I may have another way of doing that though, I have to try it first.

[Sweany]

why not cold forge the "Look" into the blade?

[jdlange]

Thats what I'm thinking, and then use ferric to get that chewed up rustic finish. Gib said that the etching tools used to mark tools and such do a good job of replicating that as well.

[C L Wilkins]

Are you looking for a look something like this?

[jdlange]

Sorta, but with a more hammered look. I did one piece that has the look this customer wants but as stated here in this thread it is not very safe to do this with stainless (the one above is tools steel), I think cold forging the hammer marks in and then goin the ferric cloride route for the darkened finish is probably what I will do. By the way I do like the look of that piece quite a bit, is that stainless?

[C L Wilkins]

It is D2 (and Dremel). It has more of a flintknapped appearance than hammered but is fairly simple to do.

Craig

[jdlange]

Yes, I like the appearance of that blade (does have kind of a knapped look) I think I will try this out on a blade or two.

Thanks