[TheForge] Stainless steel skate blades

[Paul M Dunphy]

     I recently was given a couple dozen stainless steel skate blades:

<http://www.blacksmith.ve1dx.net/skate/>

     They are 12 inches long and a little over 1/2 inch wide and 1/8 
inch thick, or thereabouts.  Does anyone have any suggestions what they 
could be used for (they are new, having come from a sports shop that 
used to replace worn out skate blades with new ones.)

     I make "OK" knives from old files and tool steel (1084 and 1095) as 
well as a few from pre-made Damascus billets.  I bought the Damascus 
because I can't pattern weld yet, if ever!  But I digress.

     I tried a couple of knives from the skate blades and both times I 
cracked them trying to forge them.  The third time I used more care, and 
I now have a rough knife blade shaped.  It still needs to be ground to a 
proper finish and heat treated.

     Several web sites on knife making mention stainless steel with some 
variation of "Don't even think about it!"  The reason given is the 
alloys are unpredictable and to properly harden/temper them you need to 
have +-10 degrees temperature control.

     All I have is a dual burner propane forge.  It gets mild and tool 
steel hot enough to forge weld.  Working and heat treating tool steel 
into blades isn't hard . . . I can do it by eye.  I can't control the 
temperature +- 10 degrees without a thermocouple or the like.

     The questions for the experts on this list is:

(1) Is it really that hard to make blades from stainless steel?

(2) If it requires more precision/expertise than the average hobbyist 
smith has, is there any other use for these than knife blades?

     I don't want to make a lot of knives with them.  I'm hoping I can 
pull off one or two.  If not, maybe I can use them for an unrelated 
blacksmith project.  I'm not really a blade-smith, but it was a good 
place to start learning the craft of working with steel.

     Anybody have any suggestions?  What would one quench them with . . 
. oil or brine or something in between?  They didn't cost me anything so 
if I waste a few experimenting, or find out they really have no 
practical use, it's no big deal.

-- 
- Paul

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Paul M Dunphy
Lake Echo, Nova Scotia

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