Why not clad with a soft stainless?

I once started a thread about soft iron cladding versus stainless cladding (http://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/archive/index.php/t-22134.html) and was thinking about it again as I got a new aogami super knife recently which I *didn't* use for a massive session of slow cooked caramelized onions, since I hadn't gotten around to putting a forced patina on it.

That thread explained why you couldn't use some stainless steels for cladding as they would "peel like an onion" during a heat treat by the smith but said soft stainless can work. But I decided I still have some more questions so if someone who knows something about smithing could weigh in I would be grateful.

So my question is does there exist a soft stainless that would be as easy to clad as soft iron and so not require special machinery for making the cladded bars? If one can, why do people still clad with soft iron? Is this a case of no matter which soft stainless you use, it will never work as well as a soft iron cladding or is it just tradition?

Thanks

You can forge weld carbon to carbon or soft iron easy , and they will have similar moving and expansion rates making it easier to forge and heat treat . Stainless cladding requires O2 free atmosphere and has to be little more precise and what you use for core and and cladding becomes more important . If I remember correct Will Catheside was taking about the problems of using o1 as a core in San mai in stainless cladding because of the reasons I stated . Stainless steels used for cladding are more expensive than your mild steels too , all these factors combined there are more soft iron cladding knives out there . I believe we will se more stainless clad in near future regardless even from the japanese makers I.e. Takedas and recently watanabe started making stainless clad gyutos .

chefcomesback said:

...I believe we will se more stainless clad in near future regardless even from the japanese makers I.e. Takedas and recently watanabe started making stainless clad gyutos .

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I agree, from Takeda's website:

We have now shifted almost all our products to NAS material.
We needed about 2 years to develop our skill to utilize NAS material.
We have succeeded to make NAS knives the traditional way my father taught me.
Also, we had to add several special techniques to accommodate NAS material.
We will also make AS knives on special order, but the prices of the AS items will be the same as the NAS line.

Shosui Takeda

I bought an AS awhile ago but decided that I wanted NAS so put it aside. Makes me think I should think twice about getting rid of the AS.

tjangula said:

I agree, from Takeda's website:

We have now shifted almost all our products to NAS material.
We needed about 2 years to develop our skill to utilize NAS material.
We have succeeded to make NAS knives the traditional way my father taught me.
Also, we had to add several special techniques to accommodate NAS material.
We will also make AS knives on special order, but the prices of the AS items will be the same as the NAS line.

Shosui Takeda

I bought an AS awhile ago but decided that I wanted NAS so put it aside. Makes me think I should think twice about getting rid of the AS.

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I doubt you will have difficulty finding an As considering their production numbers ,
Forgot to mention there are few makers from (some from this forum ) making stainless clad carbon knives with very good results