Category: Steel and Knife Properties

2 thoughts on “Steel and Knife Properties”

  1. Those photos and drawings will help people understand ! Orientation – I was curious about what Crucible does with that .Their CPM goes to Niagra Metals for rolling and they cross roll the steel. Cut into squares and rolled alternating direction to minimize directional properties. I think Matt Gregory found that in his visit.

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History - Articles - Books, Steel and Knife Properties, Super Steels

K390 – Best High Wear Resistance Steel?

Larrin

Thanks to the new Knife Steel Nerds Patreon supporters! Dusan Praznik, Donald Adkins, Marcus Collins, and Trae Santiago.

K390 Video

Here is the video version of the following information:

What is K390?

K390 was developed as an alternative to Crucible’s CPM-10V, which has had success since the late 1970s as a steel with very high wear resistance yet also moderate toughness. CPM-10V achieved these properties by having a relatively high volume of vanadium carbides, very hard carbides that contribute greatly to wear resistance. Because the carbides are so hard, it requires less of them for a certain level of wear resistance. Carbides are brittle, so having a lower volume of carbide for the same wear resistance means greater toughness. The patent application for K390 was submitted in Austria by Bohler in 2002 [1], and the steel was announced in 2004 [2]. The main modifications to CPM-10V were increased Mo, W, and Co. This gives K390 better “secondary hardening” and therefore “hot hardness” so that it can maintain its hardness at high temperatures. The higher Mo also gives it greater “hardenability” so that large dies can still harden all the way through. read more

Austenitizing, Normalizing, Toughness

Knife Steel Metallurgist Juha Perttula

Larrin

Thanks to the new Knife Steel Nerds Patreon supporters! Steve, Bruce Blake, Michael Glaser, James F Khoury, Paul Horner, and Shane Sibert.

Intro

Juha Perttula has a doctorate in metallurgy and he has published several studies in scientific journals on heat treating knife steels. So for this article I want to feature not just an individual study but a person’s work. His studies have focused on traditional bladesmithing, low alloy and carbon steels, and wootz Damascus. He also makes and sells knives which you can read about at his website, juhaperttula.com. Juha’s website also has links to the articles I will be discussing below, and I recommend you read them in addition to my commentary. read more

Hardness, Nitrogen-alloyed

Why Nitrogen Knife Steels are Soft

Larrin

Thanks to the new Knife Steel Nerds Patreon supporters! Hunter Chen, Claas, Curtis Fowler, Saptak Dutta, Tracker Dan, Paul Pedrazzi, 150LAT10N, James Kane, Vincent Franchino, and Jack Bashear.

I also have some Patreon-exclusive bonus content related to this article such as Nitrobe 77, Nitro-V, and 14C28N steel hardness data and experiments on the effects of the high temperature temper on nitrogen steel hardness. read more

Austenitic Stainless, Cold Forging, Corrosion Resistance

H2 Steel – H1 the sequel

Larrin

Background

A recent Spyderco Byte has announced a replacement for H1 steel – H2. H1 is known for being a very high corrosion resistance steel used primarily in Spyderco’s Salt line of knives. I have a previous article about the design of H1 and how it “works” which you can read here. I am somewhat tempted to re-write large chunks of that article here because H1 is one of the most misunderstood knife steels but I am going to try to hit a few of the highlights without much explanation and I hope you will read the earlier article to understand what I am referring to: read more

Austenitizing, Cryo, Edge Retention, Edge Stability, Hardness, Heat Treating and Processing, Tempering, Toughness

What is the Best Hardness for MagnaCut Knives?

Larrin

Thanks to the new members of our Knife Steel Nerds Patreon community:

Chris Hancock, Chad Morris, Edward Voss, Liam Gogley, Erik Turner, Nathan Raptis, Nick Dunham, Joe Busic, Will Red Five Forge, Dmitry Kiyatkin, Edward Edmonds, Asinelli, Mattew Reagan, Nate, Dan Barrett, Malachi Chou-Green, Nats Spawnee, McKenzie Kelsay, Jantz Supply, Adam Webb, Brian Baley, Blade HQ, and Mark Demshock. read more