Why is stainless such a bad choice for swords? There seem to

>>32070801
>Why is stainless such a bad choice for swords?

Because it's too brittle and breaks easily compared to tempered carbon steel.

>There seem to be an awful lot of stainless knives

Stainless is fine for knives because, ideally, you're not hitting them against things like you might be with a sword.

>>32070801
Depends on where they're made and by who. Stainless steel either means the bare fucking minimum in steel processing or someone actually went through the effort to forge folded and tempered steel and applied a stainless process.

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>>32070889
>>32070908
You two idiots know that there are various different types of stainless steel for various different applications, just like there are literally thousands of different typed of carbon steels, alloy steels, aluminum, and copper alloys?

Some stainless steels are barely tougher than butter, while others are made for cutting. The problem with most stainless steel swords is that they're made in China with the lowest grade stainless steel possible.

t.blacksmith

most "stainless" is 303, 311 314, or similar alloy - its the bare bottom of the barrel low-carbon steel, with a load of chrome for rust prevention.

its roughly equivalent to mild steel.

as such, no spring, and no edge-holding. hardness in the 30's rockwell, bend it, it stays bent.

its only plus point is it doesnt rust. great for wallhangars that idiots will fondle.

there are good blade stainless steels. S7, AEB-L - but they cost 20x that of 314, and so arent used by the cheap makers.
and the expensive craftsmen making swords for collectors want to use the right sort of steel - so they use carbon steels.

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>>32072015
>so they use carbon steels.
AHCKTSHULLY all steel contains carbon, carbon content is what separates steel from iron. Stainless steel contains carbon.

>>32072305
Not all steels contain carbon. All alloys of iron are called steels.

>>32070889
Meaningless and incorrect use of terminology.
>>32070908
F-, remedial study, you lose
>>32070956
Correct
>>32072015
Correct
It would be neat to see some larger blades in some of the new crucible stainless steels but I'm pretty sure the production process means that you would have to do some kind of Damascus or Mokume to produce the correct sword characteristics. And in a very controlled forge.

>>32070801
>Its comparatively expensive pound for pound for a harden-able SS
>Its a shit to forge with conventional means with high working temps,
>Depending on the SS, hardening is generally very tight temperature tolerances
>Tempering some is really fucking annoying requiring a kiln, many hours and a cryro treatment, then more tempering

Basically, its not something you can do with conventional, low tech forging gear and rudimentary tools. It does lend itself relatively well to large scale industrial applications and processing though, so if swinging swords ever came back into vogue on a military scale, they could make a lot of them uniformly and with a lot of stainless steel.

>>32072423
>>32070908
A big problem is that stainless steels are almost impossible to forgeweld since the surface forms chromium oxides which aren't affected by conventional fluxes. Another problem is that some elements in stainless steel will degas from the metal if heated up for a period of time

>>32072468
Yeah, not everyone has a kiln with a nitrogen/inert gas line running into it to prevent de-carburisation
Basically, I can go out and get a big lump of 1075 for about $40 and beat it into a really good quality sword, harden and heat treat it with very basic gear. For something say, CPM-3V- around $200 for the same sized lump of metal, its got 3 cycles of 550C tempering for 2hrs each cycle and maybe 2 cycles of -200C cryo in there as well to turn out something which is the equivalent.

Swordboo's ain't paying that kind of money for the materials and man-hours involved

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>>32072423
Never gonna happen, if we ever need military swords again you can guarantee they will be whatever the new hotness in high carbon crucible steel is.
>>32072524
Now I want to see an entire military force with CPM-3V Gladius or Kindjals.

love this thread though.

>>32072763
>taking the time to make a knife with a design that shit

Yamete

I'll make a sexy handle for it for you though. I've always wanted to make a sexy pseudo-official /k/ knife ala hitlerjugend knife but with a more innawoods style application.

I can work with wood just fine, but the most "metalsmithing" I've done was heating and peening over the end of a tang of a knife I was handling.

>>32072805
Thanks, I guess. They are getting some shitty east west fusion gutted paracord jap wrap over grip tape though, no scales.

>>32073125
>They are getting some shitty east west fusion gutted paracord jap wrap over grip tape though

Please don't do this.