Forging RWL34 stainless damascus with a 50-year-old screw press
Forging stainless damascus requires a different approach than, for example, carbon steel damascus. Stainless steel is notoriously strong and hard, almost indestructible. To make stainless damascus for my kitchen knives, I had to track down the right machine and technique just to get the material moving at all. My older 15 ton hydraulic press couldn't do it. This beautiful old screw press knows exactly how to handle that.
The video shows RWL34 and AEB-L stainless tool steel plates sealed inside a canister pressurized with nitrogen gas. The 60,000 kg generated by the 50-year-old spindle press then forces the plates into intimate contact, starting the diffusion bonding process. The material then spends half an hour in the propane forge at 1175 °C, only then do the forge welds truly form. After this, the billet is ready to be forged into a unique Van Zanten kitchen knife.