Who can weld hardened stainless steel (Niolox)?

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Common stainless tool steels are a nightmare to weld, let alone high carbon stainless steels...... the weld will air harden forming micro cracks between the hot /cold material, tig is a very local heat, so would need a very careful approach the preheat and cooling....... welding a mild tang won't help this either, this issue will be at the boundary.
Therefore if I were you I would just chuck it in the *uck bucket and start again. Practice makes perfect as they say.
 
WillC said:
Common stainless tool steels are a nightmare to weld, let alone high carbon stainless steels...... the weld will air harden forming micro cracks between the hot /cold material, tig is a very local heat, so would need a very careful approach the preheat and cooling....... welding a mild tang won't help this either, this issue will be at the boundary.
Therefore if I were you I would just chuck it in the *uck bucket and start again. Practice makes perfect as they say.
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This is like a bunch of chefs talking about how to resurrect a broken hollandaise sauce, when in the end it's easier to just start from scratch to get the best final product.
 
cheflivengood said:
This is like a bunch of chefs talking about how to resurrect a broken hollandaise sauce, when in the end it's easier to just start from scratch to get the best final product.
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That is hilarious ! :doublethumbsup:
 
Guys I got it :) Let's just call this an experiment. I will test how well the weld holds before making any more work on the blade. I will definitely report if it should fail - you deserve your "I have told you so" :D
 
Hey Matus. I did this today while attempting to straighten out some handle alignment. If you fight Gflex, it will win..
This knife was AEBL at 62. My buddy is a welding educator, took him 5 minutes. I believe he tig welded with 304 rod and very thin flexible Ti rod.
brokennakiri_zpsd6x61bas.jpg

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-Trey
 
Trey, thank you. That looks good. Did you try to stress the weld to see how it holds up? That is going to be a nice nakiri.

My blade should be with the welder now :)
 
Hey Matus. I put the blade in a bucket of water and torched/aor cooled the weld to draw it back a bit. Then applied about as much if not more pressure on the weld that i used to break it originally. I think the weld + having annealed tang is much stronger than it was before. That said still not sure what I'm gonna do with this one so I moved on to the next. Might just keep it, has an amazing grind haha.
-Trey
 
you can probably sell it as a "second" some would be all over it :whistling:
 
Well, with the help from dwalker (thanks a lot!) the knife blade was successfully welded and is on its way back to me. The following photos are from dwalker:

This is how it looked after welding:




And then after some sanding:




I can only say that I am very impressed and very thankful :)
 
That weld is beautiful! I left the weld on mine, figured it might be stronger and didn't plan on selling. Did torch the weld to soften it some and it survived the burn in / alignment process. Just slapped on some birdseye maple shoes :)
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I didn't weld it, it was done by a friend of mine that does very specialized welding. He uses a laser that is very precise. Heat is extremely localized which allows him to hold the parts with bare hands. The things he can do with it are nothing short of amazing. Here is a picture of the machine.
20170718_111528_zpsiniox4k6.jpg
 
comet_sharp said:
That weld is beautiful! I left the weld on mine, figured it might be stronger and didn't plan on selling. Did torch the weld to soften it some and it survived the burn in / alignment process. Just slapped on some birdseye maple shoes :)
Click to expand...

You saved that one nicely! I am also starting to like thid kind of single piece handles (after stocking up on all posdible handle making stuff of course)
 
The 1 piece handle was intimidating to me at first. Once I made a few mock tangs and bought a long drill bit it became quite fun :). I put saw dust in the pre burnt in slot and do a final burn in with the knife and it holds super tight.
-Trey
 
Awesome job!

If that was my knife I would have welded it with either 309 or 312 stainless, either tig or stick welder, about 30 amps per mm thickness or so.

I would have put the knife in a vase/tall glass/pipe/tube/whatever of water with only about 10mm sticking out of the water, to prevent the rest of the blade getting more than 100C.
Then I would have heated the broken tang part to a few hundred degrees C (and also the broken off tang part) with a propane torch.
Removed it quickly and welded it, then down in the water again, and then "temper" the part sticking out of the water with the same torch (since you have basically reaustenized it, so now its brittle).
 
I would only add that I have been working on the blade and hope to have it finished soon. Then it will be time for a handle :)
 
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