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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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

Corrosion Resistance, Edge Retention, Steel and Knife Properties, Toughness

Knife Steels Rated by a Metallurgist – Toughness, Edge Retention, and Corrosion Resistance

Larrin

Thanks to Bill Smutz, Alex Topfer, Florian Bachler, Brunhard, Art, Rod H, Sach, Jinny Koh, Jon Duda, Cory Henderson, and UPKnife for becoming Knife Steeel Nerds Patreon supporters! And Michael Fitzgerald, Tim Marais, and Head VI for increasing their contributions. All of the experiments shown below are possible thanks to supporters. read more