Cryo quenched 4116 steel

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gardenrambo

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Jan 21, 2014
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The Finn Hawk's blade is made of 4116 cryo quenched steel. Cryo quenching is supposed to give the steel better wear resistance which is a good thing.
As the Finn Hawk is CS latest 4116 knife I wonder if they from now on use the cryo quenching on all 4116 blades or is it just used on the Finn Hawk and possible upcoming releases in 4116? I think current knifes in 4116 like the Pro-Lite for example would also benefit from it.
I own both knifes but due to the completely different grinds its hard to compare edge holding.
So I'd like to know if future runs of current 4116 models will be "upgraded" by cryo quenching or do they keep the "normal" 4116?
 
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I thought atleast all Taiwanese and American CS blades are cryo quenched? Its kinda almost their thing

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Well, then maybe they started adding the"cryo quenched" marking with the Finn Hawk because I haven't seen it on other CS 4116 knifes
 
Most all in the heat treat business understand that the higher the alloy (any cutlery stainless steel), cryo will be needed to convert over the retained austenite. This is done, or at least SHOULD BE, on any stainless steel from 1.4116 to AEB-L to M390. Without the cryo, max RC will not/cannot be reached by a traditional quench to room temp. Low alloy steels, like carbon steels and low alloy tool steels do not have much retained austenite after the quench, so cryo it not needed. They may not indicate that the cryo was done, but it SHOULD have been done, regardless, on stainless steels.

It isn't just that simple, tho. What do "they" mean by "cryo"???? Recently there has been an attempt to kind of standardize the terminology, mostly by knife makers and heat treaters. "Cryo" should be a term limited to the use of liquid nitrogen. The liquid nitrogen temperatures of -300°F will assure close to 100% (but probably never 100%) retained austenite conversion over to untempered martensite (which then must be tempered), PLUS the ability for super small "eta" carbides to precipitate upon tempering.

Then there is "sub zero", which is temperature in the range of -100°F. Usually done with a dry ice slurry. This will assure close to 100% retained austenite conversion in ALL but the most high alloy steels, but AFAIK does NOT permit the formation of super small "eta" carbides upon tempering. 1.4116 is not an extremely alloyed stainless, so the "sub zero" will convert most of the retained austenite.

My guess is that companies like Cold Steel probably would not bother with the hassle of dry ice/slurry, and would probably be most cost efficient to go ahead and use the LN2 on all alloys. They "may" even cryo low alloy carbon steels like their O1, for example. O1 does not need it, but LN2 quenched O1 is done often.
 
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