mono v clad; ground v forged

[mpukas]

The reason that cladded blades feel different is because there is size change after heat treatment in steels causing tension between layers. Steels with the greater amount of carbon in them will grow to a greater amount than steels with less carbon. This is why the Japanese cold forge their blades, to relieve the tension between layers.

Some steels grow quite a lot after hardening, and tempering releives some of this size change but not all. There is always some tension between layers forge welded together. Cladded blades will be stiffer than mono steel blades because of the tension.

Hoss

Thanks for all the great info Devin, and for setting the record stright!!! :thumbsup:

My interpretation of what you have said re: my original question of clad v mono, is that a clad blade being stiffer will provides less feedback during cutting since it will resonate less. Not that one is better than the other, just different, and not everyone likes the same thing. Cheers! mpp

 

[tk59]

...a clad blade being stiffer will provides less feedback during cutting since it will resonate less...

Hmm. I didn't really get the same thing exactly. Stiffness would just change the frequency of the vibration, wouldn't it? If anything, it sounds like having two bells with different frequencies touching. Maybe they don't ring as well.

 

[mpukas]

Hmm. I didn't really get the same thing exactly. Stiffness would just change the frequency of the vibration, wouldn't it? If anything, it sounds like having two bells with different frequencies touching. Maybe they don't ring as well.

I think we're pretty close to being on the same page. I'm just trying to formulate what's going on into a simple sentence.