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Old 05-01-2006, 08:50   #17
Bill Harsey
Bladesmith to the Quiet Professionals
 
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Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Oregon, Land of the Silver Grey Sunsets
Posts: 3,879
tool steel basics

We all use tools made of one type of tool steel or another.

Entire libraries are dedicated to this topic and I'm not going to try and fill one up.

The tool steels we use are iron plus alloys carefully chosen by steel makers for certain performance characteristics combined with the ability to manufacture and cost considerations.

The metallurgists I work with call this "tool steel alloy design". They break this down into two basic parts, the matrix and the carbides.

Think of the matrix as the mortar and the carbides as the cobble stones.
Some alloys become the matrix, others produce carbides and some do either depending on the amount used or the type of heat treat.

This is the stuff that determines the traits we choose knives for, like edge holding (abrasion resistance), toughness (strength and ductility)and stain resistance

Last edited by Bill Harsey; 05-01-2006 at 09:51.
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