Category: History – Articles – Books

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Heat Treating and Processing, History - Articles - Books, Steel and Knife Properties

S35VN Steel – Properties and How to Heat Treat

Larrin

Thanks to Konstantinos Noulis, Neil MacEachern, and J Kane Searcy for becoming Knife Steel Nerds Patreon supporters!

S35VN Steel History

S35VN is a steel developed and produced by Crucible Industries, released in 2009. The steel was developed by Maria Sawford as a modification of S30V by reducing the vanadium content, adding 0.5% niobium, and removing the nitrogen addition (incidental nitrogen is still present). Powder metallurgy steels typically have at least 0.03% nitrogen [1][2]. These changes led to a steel with improved toughness and machinability relative to S30V at the cost of some edge retention. Heat treatment response and corrosion resistance remained approximately the same as S30V. More information on the history leading up to S35VN can be seen in this article on the newer S45VN. read more

History - Articles - Books, Super Steels

Super Hard (70 Rc) High Speed Steels – Maxamet, Rex 121, and More Explained

Larrin

Thanks to Roberto J. Rodriguez and J. Kelley for becoming Knife Steel Nerds Patreon supporters! We only need a few more for 150 supporters!

Super Hard High Speed Steels

The super hard high speed steels (>68 Rc or so) are interesting from the standpoint of knife enthusiasts and knifemakers, particularly since knives are so often produced in the 58-61 Rc range. The metallurgy of these types of steels is also interesting. But before we get to what exactly these steels are and how they work, it makes sense to look at what led to their development first. read more

Hardenability, History - Articles - Books

O1 Steel – History, Properties, and How to Heat Treat

Larrin

Thanks to Johnny Ngo and ALtheSciencePal for becoming Knife Steel Nerds Patreon supporters!

O1 Steel History

O1 steel was developed in 1905 by Halcomb steel which was acquired by Crucible Steel a few years later [1][2]. However, the history is a bit more interesting than that. In 1876 a large Sheffield steel company, Sanderson Brothers, purchased Sweet’s Manufacturing Company’s Geddes Steel Works in Syracuse New York. American tariffs had led to a large reduction in exported steel from Sheffield, and steel output from the USA had also greatly increased to match. So several English steel companies setup production facilities in the US, including Sanderson Brothers. Sanderson Brothers was a very old Sheffield steel company, founded in 1776. Tool Steel development began to explode starting in about 1900 due to the recent discovery of “high speed steel” which you can read about here: The History of the First Tool Steel. The year 1900 was doubly significant because in that year there was a major consolidation of 13 of the major steel plants which used “crucible” steel production methods, accounting for 95% of the crucible steel production in the United States. read more

History - Articles - Books, Toughness

How to Heat Treat 26C3 Steel

Larrin

Thanks to Gene Boyd and Dan Bidinger for becoming Knife Steel Nerds Patreon supporters!

26C3 Steel

26C3 steel is produced by Uddeholmstrip (part of Voestalpine Precision Strip) as a razor and scalpel steel. This steel is also known as 1.2002 using the German designation. I don’t know much about the history of the steel but the marketing literature says, “voestalpine Precision Strip AB has long experience and were the pioneers of both the high carbon (UHB 26C3) and the martensitic stainless steel (UHB AEB-L) razor strip grades” [1]. In the 1927 patent for AEB-H [2], reference is made to “the purest Swedish carbon steel with ‘1.05% C and 0.4% Mn'” and in a 1970 patent for a razor blade steel there is a reference to UHB 26C (the 3 is not on the end) which has the same approximate composition as the current 26C3 [3]. So I think there was probably some evolution of the composition despite the claims of the marketing material. The composition of 26C3 is shown below: read more

History - Articles - Books

XHP Steel – History and Properties

Larrin

Thanks to John Bates, Kenny Lazarus, Robert Abel, and Matt Danielson for becoming Knife Steel Nerds Patreon supporters! I have some exclusive Patreon supporter content this week. Pete of the Cedric and Ada Youtube channel posted this past week a video summarizing his rope cut tests on 14 Spyderco Mule knives in different steels. This is a fun test because all of the knives are nearly identical and only the steel and heat treatment is different, so it is a better steel comparison than some of the others between different knives. I already have a previous article where I compared CATRA testing to rope cutting so this new test didn’t warrant a whole new article, but I offered an analysis of his test for Patreon. read more

Austempering, Austenitizing, History - Articles - Books

The Secret Heat Treatment of Frank J. Richtig

Larrin

Thanks to Dean Baughman, Kitoc420, Steve Callari, Jay Ghoo, and Mitch Cagile for becoming Knife Steel Nerds Patreon supporters!

Legendary Heat Treatments

Last week I wrote about What a Good Heat Treatment Can and Cannot Do, and as part of that topic I wrote about how some knifemakers have a legendary or even mythical reputation for their heat treatments. In that article I argued that the big differences are between “bad” and “good” heat treatments, and that the differences between various good heat treatments are much smaller. And that edge geometry and knife design are more important to knife performance than the differences that are possible between different “good” heat treatments. So I think it makes sense to discuss a particular case of a knifemaker known for legendary, unmatched heat treatments, which brings me to… read more