Any interest in stainless?

My steel will be deliverd next week. I have to be at home to receive it, because it isn't delivered by a parcel service but by a shipping truck
I talked with the Uddeholm sales rep, and I am in fact their smallest customer. My order is literally not important to them at all. Very occasionally, they sell some small quantity to a knifemaker if he has a tax number. Other than that, they sell in industrial quantities. But he told me that they actually enjoy it at Uddeholm when a knifemaker is passionate about using this high performance steel or that.

It's great when a big company like that is basically doing you a favor.

I remember ordering some Uddeholm drops of 1mm shim stock in 15N20. It arrived on a shipping truck as an 380 Kg coil strapped up tight. It was heat treated to Rc 45 as manufactured.

I learned a great deal the day that I cut the simple steel banding strap holding that coil still...

I hope yours comes in bars Bruno.

I received the Vanadis 4 and 8, and the Vanax. The Elmax comes Friday.
Nice clean bar material.

I thought I had posted something else but can't seem to find it: I got a phone call from the sales rep who had seen my order pass by, and he was really curious about a) ordering only a couple of tiny pieces and b) what I was going to do because esp Vanax is new and not yet in use.
He asked some questions, and we had a good conversation. He asked if he could come and visit me when he's in the area.

I am not important from a financial pov, but Uddeholm has many steel nerds, and they like it when other people have a passion for their steel.

I am going to make some tooling for my press, and tongs to the size of this material.

I checked with the Uddeholm rep and he said that between 1000 and 1100 degrees Celsius would be a good temperature to work the Vanadis. I need to make some larger chef knives but I think I'm going to make a couple of smaller paring knives first and see how it moves. Kinda apprehensive about that because with 8% Vanadium and almost 4 % molybdenum, I have a feeling that it's going to tell my hammer to fuck off

I forged a small kitchen knife form Vanadis 4 Superclean. It was ... interesting. I've filmed the process and I'll upload the video later.

Use the recommended forging temperatures. I remember a time when those steels were labeled "unforgeable." I sent them pictures.

Be prepared to resurface your power hammer dies. Then count that into the expense of the knife you make. It won't be ugly just time and a little steel removal.

My power hammer is gone, now I have just the forging press. And my hand hammer.
The press was wonderful in getting it from 6/8 to 3/16.
Once it was down to 3/16, forging was not too bad actually. As long as you don't mind the steel not moving a whole lot. I mainly worked at orange heat. I'd say it took about 3 times the normal time I would have needed to forge the same knife in normal tool steel like O2

But to paint a picture for everyone who hasn't forged Vanadis, here is a fun anecdote: when I forge a knife and the angle of the tang is a bit off or the shoulders need to re-align, I heat it, clamp it in a vise and then use tongs to bend / twist this way or that.
Bear in mind, at this point the knife is only 1/8 thick and a good inch wide. So that's not a whole lot of cross section.

I did what I normally do. Except the steel didn't really move. So I grabbed the tongs with 2 hands, put my foot against my workbench and pulled. And it moved. Or so I thought. I managed to twist the jaws of my tongs crooked. Despite the knife being at red heat, my cold tongs gave before the knife did.

LOL

Mike Blue said:

I remember ordering some Uddeholm drops of 1mm shim stock in 15N20. It arrived on a shipping truck as an 380 Kg coil strapped up tight. It was heat treated to Rc 45 as manufactured.

I learned a great deal the day that I cut the simple steel banding strap holding that coil still...

I hope yours comes in bars Bruno.

Click to expand...

That sounds like it was quite the reactive endeavor.

Yeah, think Giant Razor Blade Slinky ... spring tempered all letting go at once.

I've ordered 8 or 10 inch wide bands at 0.062 inch thick with sheared edges, hence the razor comment.

I learned to trap the second on a stout rod across the forklift of the tractor....that was much more controlled. The third and subsequent were drop shipped to a friend of mine who could mount the unsprung roll onto a feeder for his high speed punch press. Then all we had to do was pick up 2 x 10 inch strips.

Mike Blue said:

Giant Razor Blade Slinky

Click to expand...

That was exactly what I was thinking. I've seen bands go on steel before and it can be interesting to say the least.