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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2007 4:44:58 GMT
Now i know that everybody says that stainless steel is for wallhangers yada yada and that is fine and well and good but how good is high carbon infused stainless steel for iaito or shadow drills? Is it as dangerous as wall hanger stainless steel? If it is fully tempered and what not? Correct me if i am wrong but all steels contain carbon dont they? Even stainless steels?
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2007 5:27:11 GMT
Some of Hanwei's iaito are stainless. They are tempered. I'm pretty sure the only thing that makes stainless ...stainless is the addition of chromium so yes, it does contain carbon.
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2007 5:45:11 GMT
Yes, all steels are basically iron with one degree or another of carbon added into the mix. So-called "stainless" steels only differ from carbon steels in that they contain a large amount of chromium in order to inhibit corrosion, but it also tends to make them more brittle at higher hardnesses. SOme carbon steels also have chromium in them, but to a much smaller degree. The amount of chromium that qualifies a steel to be a stainless steel varies between 12%-13% (usually). Less than that, and it's still considered just "steel". I continue to oppose the argument that stainless steels are not suitable for sword blades, though I admit that low end wallhangers could prove quite dangerous, as the quality of steel and heat treating processes used in their production are generally crappy at best. I believe that this, more than anything else, is the main reason for the anti stainless sentiments in the sword community. People have become used to the stainless=crappy wallhanger example. Besides this, most people have experienced brittle stainless knife blades, and, again, think that this proves they could never be used in swords. COnsider that many stainless knife blades are of high carbon, high chromium composition (double whammy in the brittleness area) and are often tempered to over 60HRC (very, very hard). As long as you have a decent quality stainless steel that is suitably tempered for a sword length blade, it should be fine. Here's a chart showing the relative content of various elements for the most common cutlery stainless steels: www.agrussell.com/knife_information/steel_guide/index.html
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2007 6:04:58 GMT
So carbon infused stainless steel would do what i needed it to? I.e not break from repeated drawing or from shadow drills?
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2007 6:14:49 GMT
If you can find a decently heat treated stainless sword (regardless of carbon or chromium content), I wouldn't hesitate to use it for non contact drills. Like I said, the only stainless swords that I consider to be truly dangerous for ANY use at all, are the wallhangers, which are more often than not going to be made out of horribly cheap, impure stainless alloys and poorly heat treated, if they even ARE heat treated. If Ronin is correct, and Chen/Hanwei makes a stainless iaito, I'd have no problem at all with one of those.
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2007 6:18:08 GMT
All hanwei's iaito except for the meijin are stainless steel, global gear have one in their line that looks quite nice but it would need to stand upto being used for shadow drilling.
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2007 6:23:10 GMT
Then I guess Ronin was correct. ;D I've never really looked at Hanwei's iaito, so I wasn't sure whether they were stainless or not. Anyway, I'd tend to stick to a known quantity like Hanwei, rather than take a chance on one you are less familiar with. THough, I guess you could contact Global and see what they have to say about theirs.
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