A2 San-Mai Feeler (Wrought? Plain Iron? SS? Damasus?)

[MSicardCutlery]

I have an offcut from my latest collab knife with @KasumiJLA and have been thinking about what to do with it. It's just enough for one blade, but I will be making more offcuts as I try different forging techniques to get different effects in the banding. Anyways, the piece I have is big enough to use for a san-mai billet, and I'm curious if that's the sort of thing there might be broader interest in. I remember reading at some point, somewhere on here, people lamenting not being able to get any wrought clad A2 from a maker (ShiHan?) and I thought I might give it a shot myself if there's any appeal. At the same time I know that not everyone is into wrought, so I've added a couple of other options.

 

[enrico]

Is it dumb to do an a2 cladded in a2 with nickel shim?

I feel like I’ve seen some makers do that

HF comes to mind with his “banded lighting” etched knives

 

[MSicardCutlery]

Is it dumb to do an a2 cladded in a2 with nickel shim?

I feel like I’ve seen some makers do that

Not necessarily, for purely aesthetic purposes. I don't see any practical advantage to it in terms of manufacture or maintenance though.

 

[enrico]

Not necessarily, for purely aesthetic purposes. I don't see any practical advantage to it in terms of manufacture or maintenance though.

Heard that. Just loved the banding on this one

http://www.halcyonforge.com/store/hogls46278ix9lpy9nqpdomgma348o

 

[MSicardCutlery]

Interesting. I think he might have done some heavy forging to the cladding separately to manipulate the banding as much as possible and then don't more basic drawing once it was laminated. I could be wrong, but it does seem like there are two different degrees of distortion between the core and cladding.

 

[MSicardCutlery]

Ok sooooo, looks like this stuff is getting wrought cladding. I may make a small test piece to make sure it'll actually forge though. It's possible the the wrought will forge too quickly relative to the A2 to hold together.

 

[zade223]

That's a great idea to test the wrought cladding with a small test piece before committing to a full blade.

 

[MSicardCutlery]

Ok sooooo, looks like this stuff is getting wrought cladding. I may make a small test piece to make sure it'll actually forge though. It's possible the the wrought will forge too quickly relative to the A2 to hold together.

I should add this is exactly what happened when I tried Zwear/Low carbon cladding

 

[MSicardCutlery]

So, I made the test piece today with low carbon cladding. It's in the anneal now. I won't know until tomorrow if it's solid or not though.

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

I think this is a great move Matt. Best of luck!

 

[MSicardCutlery]

It worked!

 

[MSicardCutlery]

So, just to update:

The welding went well, but the HT...not so much. What was going to be a 180x35 petty split very badly. Not too badly to salvage, but the delamination was extensive enough that I had to reduce the size to 119x29mm and grind the core way out of center to eliminate the delam. Maybe it had something to do with the pre-ht thickness, but I'm confident that wrought clad is probably a very bad idea. I'll most likely end up making the gyuto carbon clad to further mitigate the issue.

 

[daveb]

I've had A2 and Zwear as mono knives and quite liked the performance of them. What advantages will cladding the A2 offer?

 

[Dave]

Very interested to see how this turns out!

 

[SwampDonkey]

Big fan of A2 mono. A think a nickle or stainless clad for ultra low maintenance would really nice

 

[MSicardCutlery]

I've had A2 and Zwear as mono knives and quite liked the performance of them. What advantages will cladding the A2 offer?

Getting rid of a cut-off and probing the general interest of people. Checks a completionist box for me too, plus I'll be curious to see what the banding in the core looks like. Additionally, I get the impression mono and clad knives attract two different bases.