Month: July 2018

Damascus, History - Articles - Books, Steels

Five Myths About Damascus Steel

Larrin

Knife Steel Nerds coffee mugs have been shipped to all current “Ultimate Steel Nerd” Patreon supporters. 

What is Damascus Steel?

There are two major steel types that are called Damascus:

1. Crucible, or Wootz, steel was first produced in India and Central Asia and produced into swords anciently from at least the 3rd century AD [1]. It is made by producing small ingots of high carbon steel that are then forged and thermal cycled in a specific manner to lead to carbide bands that produce the final pattern when the steel is etched [2][3]: read more

Corrosion Resistance, History - Articles - Books, Steels

Steel History – The First Stainless Steel was for Knives

Larrin

Update 7/23/2018: I added a small piece of new information on the development of 440C steel to the article. 

Thanks to Greg Hanson for becoming a Knife Steel Nerds Patreon supporter!

The writing of this article was made much easier due to the existence of The History of Stainless Steel by Harold Cobb [1]. If you want more information on the history of stainless and the people who developed it, check out the book. read more

Austempering, Heat Treating and Processing

Bainite vs Martensite – The Secret to Ultimate Toughness?

Larrin

Thanks to Thomas Busch for becoming a Knife Steel Nerds Patreon supporter!

Misc. update: I have added a set of supporting micrographs to the introduction to Austenitizing steel. 

Tempered Martensite

To begin describing what bainite is it makes sense to start with martensite first. To form martensite we heat up the steel to high temperature to transform to a phase called austenite where we dissolve carbon in between the iron atoms (see Austenitizing Part 1), then quench the steel to lock in the carbon and form a hard phase called martensite (see What Makes Quenched Steel so Hard?). Following that we temper the martensite to allow some of the carbon out and increase the ductility of the martensite; the carbon comes out as very small carbides, a compound of iron and carbon (see What Happens During Tempering?). In the article on martensite formation I shared the following YouTube video to see the formation of the martensite laths: read more