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by recycledmatt 1277 days ago
You would not be able to throw it in a ‘smelter’ and have it maintain its chemistry - smelters are huge mass production shops. A foundry could do this without problem. They exist to do small, chemically precise runs.
1 comments

Ah, thank you. I didn't know what the difference was between a smelter and a foundry.
A few year ago, someone posted about designing a new stainless steel for ¿knives? Something about copying the properties of some well known iron alloy to a stainless version. IIRC you should add some chrome to make it stainless and vanadium to make it hard, and then some long explanation about the carbon content so there is not a lot of ¿chrome carbide? inside the steel. He hired a specialized foundry to make a small batch with very precise composition. It was very interesting but very above my metallurgy knowledge, so I don't' remember the details. And sadly I can't find the link now.
I believe it was this post? If not I'm curious about it if you remember. The link and discussion here was a fascinating look into another world for me.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29696120 https://knifesteelnerds.com/2021/03/25/cpm-magnacut/

It was that post. Thanks.