Hi guys, hope youre having a good time. well i want to make my first shot at wootz steel.
Ive read i need iron, carbon, flux and a barrier.
all ive seen comes from wrought iron.
Can Wootz steel be made from electrolytic iron, charcoal, Flux, and glass in a crucible?
i have a bunch of 15n20, 1084 and 80crv2 cuttings, can i just melt this in to a wootz steel?
i have around 2 years making knives, im building a small power hammer also.
thanks in advance.
The short answer is that will not really work as you described. long answer is Yes electrolytic Iron can make wootz, but you will need additional material. Most are using vanadium as a carbide former you can add small amount of ferro vanadium, chrome is also an option, several wootz makers have seen good effects with adding phosphorous as well. A very small piece of known material that has the needed alloy can asl be used in place of pure alloy.
you can also make wootz from modern alloy remelted, (ie 1084 80crv2 etc) there are issues with this how ever, most of the time you end up with to much alloy and trace elements, specifically manganese as this is in almost all modern steel and is very difficult to remove.
not having control of the trace/ total alloy elements means pattern is more of a crapshoot and if carbon uptake is to much then the ingot can be unforgeable.
Just a note making the ingot is the easy part Processing/forging the ingot into bar is the real challenge.
good luck!
MP
Jose, that's what Ric Furrer uses as feedstock: electrolytic iron, industrially pure cast iron (ferrocast) to set the carbon content, and some 1018 for manganese.
The pucks I've made that way at Ric's have really fine watering, but we didn't add vanadium. Like Matt says, some CruForge V or the like is a good way to add the vandium to better watering.
