Hardening unknown stainless...?

[Luke Peter]

Hi Everyone.

I've just started out and have ground a few blades out of some stainless sheets that I had in the shed. They were reasonably hard when I started, but I was using a bench grinder and they got rather hot as a result. They are now unable to keep an edge. Easy to sharpen, but very soft, only good for cutting steak and the like....

Is their any way for me to harden them without knowing the exact steel type, and without being able to tell exactly how hot my charcoal forge is making them?

Any info will be much appreciated.

[mete]

Stainless sheets ? If they are 300 series they can't be heat treated only hardened by working .You may have annealed cold worked material. Other than that dealing with a carbon 'mystery steel' is difficult enough for stainless it's much more of a problem . Hardening temperatures are about 1850-1950 F and significant decarburization will occur without heating it in protective foil or using a salt pot .Temperature control is another big problem.All you can do is test a piece , see if it hardens and go from there .

[Dan Graves]

Try using a magnet on them. If the magnet does not stick, it is 300 stainless with no carbon and nothing can be done.

[RJ Martin]

Luke Peter: Get yourself some 01 steel and use that. You're wasting your time with SS sheet. Even if you knew what it was, you couldn't heat treat it correctly or to an adequate hardness in your charcoal forge. Sorry.

[Luke Peter]

Bummer, will scrap it then, or make it ornamental

Thanks for the info, will have to scrap a whole lot of metal, but you saved me plenty frustration.

[T-Wolf]

save it for guards and bolsters,Luke.welcome to the forums!