Welded Chainsaw Chain

[Iron Poet]

As a lark I decided to see if I could weld it together after I read about someone welding roller chain on here. Turns out, chainsaw chain welds together really nicely. However after that I've fairly lost on how to proceed, I'm pretty good at forge welding mild steel together and I know how that reacts. But this has at least 3 different kinds of steel but probably 5 or 6 all interacting and I'm concerned that it might behave erratically when I've forged it down to 1/4"

Any tips and tricks to forging 'damascus'? Quenching? xxxx, I'll even take a suggestion for a knife shape.

[Buzzkill]

Since not all chainsaw chains are the same I believe you want to treat this like "mystery steel."  In other words forge a small piece out to roughly the thickness and shape of your desired project, then run it through some heat treating tests.  Bring it up to non-magnetic and quench in oil.  See if a file skips off it or bites in.  If it's hard then run a temper cycle or two on it.  The temperature will depend on what you want to make.  For a knife blade I'd try 350 degrees F then put it in a vice and see how it bends before snapping.  If you like the results then stick with that program.  If it doesn't flex enough before breaking then give what remains a cycle at 400 degrees and repeat. Keep raising the temper temperature a little at a time until you like the results.

If it didn't harden in the oil quench then you may want to increase the pre-quench temperature a little and try again.  If it still doesn't harden then you'll want to try a water or brine quench and go through the same process of temper and test until you like the results - if it hardened.  Take notes about what you're doing and what worked or didn't work so you don't have to repeat that the next time you use that same brand of chainsaw chain (assuming the manufacturer doesn't change steels on you).

If it didn't harden in the water/brine quench then you probably don't have anything suitable for a blade by itself, but could be used as outer layers in san mai or for other decorative purposes.

I believe the forge welding process and subsequent forging will create enough carbon migration that even though you may have several different types of steel involved, in the end the carbon content should be fairly consistent through your billet, assuming you got it to weld up well.