Carbon steel

Cheryl Wade · Post by **Cheryl Wade** » Wed Jul 23, 2003 5:26 pm

This may be a silly question but I know nothing about metals - if stainless steel is carbon steel with added nickel to make it stainless, can you use carbon steel items as moulds or is the nickel an essential element? I understand that carbon steel withstands the same temperatures as stainless.
Many thanks
Cheryl

Mike Byers · Post by **Mike Byers** » Wed Jul 23, 2003 6:17 pm

You can use carbon steel (disc blades, for example) but it will rust. Sometimes this doesn't matter, and I can get away with cleaning and re-priming my disc blades, cultivator sweeps and and other farm machinery parts between firings. But sometimes, you need a nice smooth surface that doesn't rust, and in this case stainless steel is better. The big advantage of carbon steel, in a farming area at least, is that you can find all sorts of interesting things for free. You can also sandblast the carbon steel to get it good and clean between firings, but after a while it gets pretty pitted. Then you can cut it up and weld it into sculptures, or just recycle it. If you find a carbon steel shape you like, I'd say give it a try and see how it works with what you're trying to make.

Paul Housberg · Post by **Paul Housberg** » Wed Jul 23, 2003 7:05 pm

Depends on how hot and for how long. Even common stainless (303) will scale and stick to glass, though not usually at temps for simple slumping.

I typically slump at 1430 in stainless molds and the glass and molds are held above 1250 for a few hours. It's, perhaps, more of a cast than a slump. I had to go to 309 stainless which is more resistant to scaling.

Cheryl Wade · Post by **Cheryl Wade** » Thu Jul 24, 2003 5:54 pm

Thank you, I found a carbon steel wok at a reasonable price that is perfect for a shallow dish I want to slump - couldn't find anything of the right dimensions in stainless.
Cheers, Cheryl