so I was given a piece of cobalt and was asked if I could make something out of it and if not the person needs it back. this is probably a very silly question but I am almost certain I cant forge it. any feed back is much appreciated.

 

Nick O

You could try, but don't guarantee the results ... and make 100% sure your PPE is in order. Could be all manner of dangerous stuff produced under forge heat.

I was doing a web search to see what the world had to say about forging cobalt and ran across a youtube video regarding cobalt/damascus that was about the showiest knife I had ever seen.  Lots of color, especially purple.  Not sure if it has anything to do with forging actual cobalt or if they chucked in the word "cobalt" for other reasons.

The photo doesn't do it justice so you might want to search for the video.  I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on getting that kind of color in a damascus stack or as it appears in the handle and school me a bit on what might have been used.  Yes, it's a bit of a thread hijack but if throwing cobalt in the stack gets you this, I think people might want to know more about the cobalt forging issue.

 

Do you know what alloy of Cobalt (or if it is a pure electrolytically deposited sanple)? I would expect that its hot working charactistics could vary significantly based on what you actually have. I found the following document that covers forging of some Cobalt based superalloys, but it may or may not be suitable for your material. 

http://www.haynesintl.com/pdf/h3159.pdf

I'm not sure wether or not it is forgable.  I know in the machining world that cobalt drills are a step up from standard high speed steel drills.  They drill better, you can push them a little harder, and they last longer.  The posts I have seen recommend against forging high speed steel, I would think it would apply to cobalt as well. 

49 minutes ago, Blue Duck Forge said:

Do you know what alloy of Cobalt (or if it is a pure electrolytically deposited sanple)? I would expect that its hot working charactistics could vary significantly based on what you actually have. I found the following document that covers forging of some Cobalt based superalloys, but it may or may not be suitable for your material. 

http://www.haynesintl.com/pdf/h3159.pdf

Its a bit for a lathe or mill at a factory

6 minutes ago, Hay River said:

I'm not sure wether or not it is forgable.  I know in the machining world that cobalt drills are a step up from standard high speed steel drills.  They drill better, you can push them a little harder, and they last longer.  The posts I have seen recommend against forging high speed steel, I would think it would apply to cobalt as well. 

your probably right its a bit from a lathe or mill from a factory

My GoogleFu says almost all cobalt alloys in conjunction with forging as die and forge tool alloys.

Frosty The Lucky.

I've forged H-13 and from looking at the PDF file above  I notice there is a similarity in the forging conditions for H-13 and the cobalt alloys shown.   There is a very narrow range of conditions that permit forging.  Too cold and it doesn't move.  Too Hot and it cracks and crumbles.    Forging conditions would be right at welding temperatures for high carbon steels.

 

Since forging cobalt is not the same as forging an iron alloy with cobalt. I will move this to the general smithing section and fix the title also.  good luck.

After some reflection  Steve it is highly unlikely that he has anything other than an alloy.    At a guess I'd say he has something like an like a piece of M2 which is cobalt/chrome and a little Iron if I recall.  Cobalt is also found in high grade magnets and use in nuclear plants .  General smiting would be the place.   

 

Look up forging High Speed Steel - HSS .

18 hours ago, Charlotte said:

After some reflection  Steve it is highly unlikely that he has anything other than an alloy.    At a guess I'd say he has something like an like a piece of M2 which is cobalt/chrome and a little Iron if I recall.  Cobalt is also found in high grade magnets and use in nuclear plants .  General smiting would be the place.   

 

that is why I moved it from the non-ferrous section to here what is your point ? He asked about cobalt he was given, nothing about steel, I was attempting to get people to say what they mean, rather then toss words around and later not have things work as they expected.

If only people would take off their aluminum foil hats before they post here; it would make it so much easier to read what they mean inside their skull instead of what they type and then expect us to guess and by guessing mislead anyone else who does a search and finds the post using terms incorrectly!

Most high speed and tool steels are forgeable given the right parameters. There are cobalt based super alloys which are also forgable but very challenging. I've never run across purchase cobalt so I don't know how it works.

There are several Co-Cr alloys that are commonly produced and used in various fields. F75 and F799 are Co-Cr-Mo alloys with very similar composition yet slightly different production processes, F90 is a Co-Cr-W-Ni alloy, and F562 is a Co-Ni-Cr-Mo-Ti alloy. and none of these contain any iron.