[TheForge] hastalloy

[Andrew Vida]

Lon Humphrey wrote:
> my boss gave me a short section of 3 in. hastalloy pipe yesterday he 
> said "this stuff is as hard as hell i might make a good knife got a lot 
> of Ni in it." well a simple grind test told me that it did not have 
> enough C to get hard but searching on the web it looks like its heat 
> resistant and i need a new forge grate.  any of you have any exp with 
> this stuff

	I've worked with Haynes 230, which is a similar alloy.  High 
temperature strength and corrosion resistance, which is why they are 
used in the hot portions of gas turbines such as nozzles.  It can be 
forged, but as I recall it is not straightforward.  I may be mistaken 
here, but I seem to recall that Hasteloy is best forged in a slow press, 
much like alloys of Ti, rather than hammered.

Haynes 230 is good for operations up to something like 2300*.  I know 
hasteloy is lower than that (Haynes was the highest temperature alloy I 
could find) but is still very high.  I'm not sure I'd want to use it in 
a grate due to the nickel content.  One need not worry about that in jet 
engines because they don't get as hot and the oxide layer at the surface 
remains undisturbed, for the most part.  A grate is goign to be fussed 
with and scraped often.  I think iron remains the safer bet.

	Because of it's high nickel content, I would be very careful of fumes. 
  See the msds for nickel and its oxides before proceding.