[TheForge] Stainless steel tools

[Ries Niemi]

Stainless is 30% to 50% harder to forge than mild steel.
So you gotta hit it harder, use bigger hammers, and so on.
It doesnt stay hot as long, either- more frequent heats are usually 
required.

You do not need stainless tooling to work with stainless- I have forged 
thousands of pounds of stainless using my regular hammers, punches, 
hardies, power hammer dies, and spring swages.
Never had a problem with contamination from hot working.
You do have to be careful to use new grinding and sanding wheels, and 
new wire brushes, as tiny particles can get picked up when you use em 
on mild steel, then embedded in the stainless, causing rust spots.

It is awfully helpful to find out exactly what alloy they are tossing- 
there are a couple of hundred different ones, and they work 
differently.
Most likely its  either a 300 series, like 304 or 316, or a 400 series. 
The 300's will actually anneal, and get softer, when you hot quench 
from red. This makes em easier to work. The 400 series can be heat 
treated to harden, which complicates matters for ordinary forging of 
ornamental stuff, although its a good thing if you want to make knives.

2" stainless takes one hell of a whack to move. My 88lb power hammer 
wont really work 2"- It gives up the ghost around 1 1/2" in stainless. 
I doubt you will be able to make that 2" do much with anything less 
than a 10lb sledge. A team of strikers would be better.

ries


On Jan 2, 2007, at 9:17 AM, Harry wrote:

> Hi all,
>
>     If I am to work with stainless should I make hardies and such out 
> of
>     stainless as well? And on the subject of stainless does it forge
>     well? I haven't tried any yet but they produce a lot of stainless
>     scrap at work. I was looking at a 2" shaft they were throwing away
>     and thinking it could be used for a lot of things...if it can be
>     forged. I don't have a plasma cutter so it would have to be cut the
>     old fashioned way. What I have been working with so far would be
>     A36, leaf springs, any bits of steel that were handy. I have some
>     fairly large gauge copper wire I have been playing with as well.
>
> Glad the holidays are over.
> Harry, aka Ebeneezer
> -- 
>   Harry
>   iowaharry at fastmail.net
>
> -- 
> http://www.fastmail.fm - IMAP accessible web-mail
>
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Ries Niemi
Industrial Artist

http://www.RiesNiemi.com