I had not thought about that Steve. Sounds very plausible to me. I have always use carbon steel brushes. Have to give this some thought. I appreciate you taking on the frustration for us.

Brion

I know it doesn't help answer the initial question, but I tired with buying wire brushes some time ago and got one of those masonry brushes that have the 1/4" wide flat steel strips for bristles and that one is the only one I ever bought. Aggressive as all get out, I have used it exclusively for well over ten years. On the stainless question, the series would make too much of a difference when considering that it will be either an overblown chrome or nickel content that makes it stainless, and either one would be a problem for welding if it were deposited on the steel surface.

Edited to add- Separate conversations indicated to me that I may have misunderstood the wire brush being discussed, I thought it was a hand brush, if it is a power wire wheel, I apologize for the misunderstanding. I have never used a power wire wheel for descaling just a large side grinder.

Its little things like that that could make a huge difference in the outcome. Very good observation.

Steve,I think this is a verry good subject. Getting 304 or 316 stainless isnt hard for me as I work in a stainless shop where we use that material every day. I have tryed to laminate it to high carbon steel and have had some trouble with what looks like cold shuts in the blade when I start the grinding. To answer your question on wire brushes I got out my McMaster-Carr catalouge and looked up wire brushes, the stainless steel flexible bristle block style wire brushes they sell will be of type 302/304 stainless. Im not shure where you are getting your brushes but it is verry possible they may be made of the same material. Hope this helps.

Also i forgot to mention that I also use the type of brushes Kevin is talking about.

masonry brushes that have the 1/4" wide flat steel strips for bristles

There's a good idea! Got to get me one of those!

I thought it was a hand brush

I did mean a hand wire brush.

I got out my McMaster-Carr catalouge and looked up wire brushes, the stainless steel flexible bristle block style wire brushes they sell will be of type 302/304 stainless

Thanks Landon. I hadn't checked McMaster Carr yet. MSC doesn't specify the type of steel used in the wire brushes.

It's pretty rare that I ever have problems with forge welds. Due to the process I use to make damascus, a wire brush is almost never used on my billets. There's just been the odd job where I may have used the stainless wire brush and then also had problems with closing a weld. But, I can't say with certainty that using a stainless steel brush definitely created problems. Might be nothing to it.

I try to avoid problems in my work, by using an overabundance of caution in my process. One thing that I avoid doing, is using belts that have been used on stainless to do any grinding on steel for damascus. In the same way, I try to avoid using a grinding belt that has been used on carbon steel to grind stainless steel fittings. There is the possibility of embedding carbon steel in the surface of the fittings and then having rust spots occur on the fittings later. Cross contamination of materials is something that we knifemakers seldom discuss. Workers in other metal-crafts pay close attention to this. Jewelers are careful to have files, abrasives and buffing wheels for each type of precious metal that they work with.

As I was looking to purchase a new wire brush, it occurred to me that I had never considered the possibility of the stainless material from a wire brush contaminating the work piece. So, I wondered if anyone else had any thoughts about it, or had any experiences with it actually being an issue.

I posted this thread in the General Discussion Topic. Partly because of my silly comment at the beginning. But too, because wasn't sure this was a real issue in our work. If we agree that avoiding the use of a stainless steel wire brush is at least a good idea, I could move this thread to one of the How To topics.

This sort of sounds like the brush Kevin described, and is what I use.

Super aggressive.

Has not seemed to deteriorate in any way in the two years I've had it.

http://www.anvilbrand.com/LARGE-BUTCHER-BLOCK-BRUSH-WHANDLE-P254.aspx