cryogenic treating

Nowicki

Nowicki

Joined
Jan 18, 2003
Messages
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I'm being lazy here so if this has already been addressed..... I was asked if I cryogenic treated my blades.... I know this is a freezing process but not much more. Didn't really answer the guy but figured I'd ask what are the advantages and/or disadvantages and anything else I need to know? What steels benifit from this?....D2?

Thanks
Larry
 
i read here on the forum that it will raise the rc a couple points. i'm sure someone with more info will give you more info. i have been thinking of going out to my friends dairy farm and drop a blade in his liquid nitrogen tank that he keeps his artificial insemination tubes in just to see what happens.
 
From what I've read Richard that wouldn't really help. Cryo treatment takes place right after quench and a first low temper. In complex SS it can convert retained austenite to martensite which ultimately toughens the blade and makes it a tiny bit harder. Hopefully I'm not too wrong and someone who knows more about it will step up :)
 
Cryogenically treating a steel as part of the heat treat process transforms retained austenite to martensite, the stuff we want in a blade edge or entire blade if full quenching is performed. As a result of this added martensite hardness can increase. Regardless of increased hardness I temper down to a hardness that I would otherwise prefer for same blade had cryo not been performed (it is the martensite and lack of austenite that is sought here).

rlinger
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Just out of curiositiy, what happens if you QUENCH a blade in Liquid N2? other than the exploding cloud of vaporised nitrogen that is?
 
If you quench a blade in liquid nitrogen the blade would crack from the rapid cooling, even room temperature water cools many steels too rapidly. Liquid nitrogen will boil at -320F so think of how fast the blade will cool compared to water or oil. Also since the nitrogen will boil so rapidly I would expect drops that are still liquid to exit the container and possibly burn the person quenching.
 
not that I would promote dropping anything into LIN without PPE, but LIN and LOX will not burn if you let it roll off. Only when the puddle is big enough and left in one place will it burn. But, I could only imagine the crazy shapes you would get from dropping hot blades in there as they crack from cooling too fast.
 
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