What is LW-50 barrel steel?

Lance

February 10, 2004 07:38

I need a chemical analysis, specifications sheet, or a corrosion resistance comparative analysis of a proprietary German stainless barrel steel with 416R/416BQ and 17-4PH steels.

Lothar Walther GmbH is a German rifle barrel manufacturer. The company uses a proprietary steel LW-50 (I've seen it identified as LW-50, LW 50, and Lothar Walther 50.) The claim is that it is "truly stainless" rather than moderately corrosion resistant as is 410 series stainless steels.

Excluding advertising hyperbole, I cannot find any hard data about the steel.

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  rldowns3

  February 10, 2004 09:20

  If it truly is proprietary then probably the only ones that know it's exact data/specifications are the mfg's.
  
  

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  FrancF

  February 10, 2004 11:29

  17-4 Stainless (if I recall) is solely for heat treatment applications.
  
  You can compare them here-
  http://www.hghouston.com/ss_comp.html
  
  
  "If you aim at nothing,
  you will be sure to hit it"
  
  
  [img][/img]

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  Alpine

  February 10, 2004 11:40

  17-4 PH Stainless is what I use for spear fishing points. The heatreating process (heat for a period of time and air cool)turns the stainless steel a red-brown which turns to a darker brown after exposure to air. The Rockwell number is in the low 50's as opposed to regular (300 series) stainless in the low 40's. Also it can be repolished but will turn brown again after a period of time.
  
  The LW-50 does not show up in my alloy books at all.
  
  "If you ain't got pictures, I wasn't there."

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  JustC

  February 10, 2004 12:28

  Contact Blackstar barrels. They do their proprietary polishing treatment of the bore to the LW50 (lothar walther barrel blanks) I have a 34"x 1.50" .30cal blank 1:10 twist Blackstar Accumax II,..and was told by many a gunsmith,..the heat treatment makes these barrels sooooo hard,. a carbide reamer must be used to cut them. They are super hard......
  
  why chase the game when the bullet can get em from here?....
  Got Balistics?

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