j.w.s. Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 A friend of mine from the ABS gave me a plate of aus-8 @ 5"x36"x0.625". Now I know its a Japanese stainless (almost a 4 letter word, I know) similar to 440b and its used in commercial knife making by SOG and cold steel, but has anyone ever forged this stuff? I'm assuming he gave it to me to get it out of his shop and because, unlike him, I have the equipment to dice and draw this thing up into useable billets. The heat treat is fairly extreme (compaired to my usual steels) and rather specific but I figured I'd give it a go just to say I did. First though I'm gonna take a drive over to a friend who has an XRF gun just to make sure it is what I've been told it is. J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j.w.s. Posted March 19, 2015 Author Share Posted March 19, 2015 Update. Turns out its MIL-DTL-46177 RHA. Essentially military grade 4340 that was used for rolled homogeneous armor in vehicles. Now I've got to find a use for it or its just going to sit around like that 11 lb cylinder of IN718 i cant do anything with.J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMaelstrom Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 At least the military grade 4340 is usable for something. I recently worked as a process engineer casting air and ground based turbines and we used quite a bit of IN718. I had a few sections of an airfoil lying around and managed to make 2 really decent dive knives. An 11 lb cylinder though...I managed to pick up a "pile" of old metal from my current work place and scattered in the bits of steel was a 5/8" rod of F-75 cobalt super alloy and a 4" x 18" block of 17-4. Same boat as you: Really cool, cant figure out what I am going to use it for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGGUNDOCTOR Posted March 26, 2015 Share Posted March 26, 2015 We just got done with a job that used 1" diameter 718 Inconel. How well does it forge? The bar ends are around 3"-5" long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted March 26, 2015 Share Posted March 26, 2015 Inconel tends to be a bit hard to work, with 52% Ni it would have a high scrap rate though. We did use it for knife fittings before when we lucked across a bar they sold us at stainless prices. hightempmetals.com: Hot WorkingHot-working is carried out using a 2050°F (1121°C) maximum furnace temperature. Hot-cold working in the range 1700/1850°F (927/1010°C) will improve the strength of the forging if the service temperature is below about 1100°F (593°C). Prolonged soaking at the forging temperature is not desirable. The material should be given uniform reductions to avoid the formation of duplex grain structures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGGUNDOCTOR Posted March 26, 2015 Share Posted March 26, 2015 (edited) Yes, we got a good price for the turnings. We kept them separate from the other stainless, and sent the material certification along with them. Edited March 26, 2015 by BIGGUNDOCTOR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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