Experimental steel I thought up-would it work?

Atakdog

Atakdog

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Sep 3, 2012
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Last night I had a though that I couldn't get out of my mind: what if you took the properties of the best steels in wear resistance, corrosion resistance, and toughness and combined the three in equil amounts?:jerk it:
Would it create a supersteel on par with m390 or Cts-204p?

After sleeping on it, I looked up the compositions of these three steels. H1 would be for corrosion resistance, Cpm-3v for toughness, and Cpm-s125v for wear resistance (I am aware that there could be better steels in these categories I don't know about).
I added up the percentages of the elements in these steels and this is what the composition of the theoretical supersteel would look like:

C- 1.4%
Cr- 11.8%
V- 4.8%
Mo- 1.6%
Ni- 2.3%
Mn- 0.5%
Si- 1.2%
With trace amounts of Tungsten, Phosphorus, and Sulfur.

I know a decent amount of what different blade steels will do, but not about the metelergy behind them.
Can anyone tell me if this idea I had looks like a decent blade steel?:D
 
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Makes no sense to include H1 steel, but no nitrogen (N). Actually, it's really not applicable at all to include H1, because the way it uses nitrogen to replace carbon makes it completely different than other steels. In fact, it's technically not steel at all.
 
I'm no metallurgist but I'll take a stab at it.

Atakdog said:
...what if you took the properties of the best steels in wear resistance, corrosion resistance, and toughness and combined the three in equil amounts?
Click to expand...

It doesn't really work that way.

You're not going to get much corrosion-resistance - certainly nothing approaching H1 levels - with 11.8% chromium. Almost all the Cr will be tied up in carbides, leaving very little "free" chrome, which is what allows stainless steel to self-passivate.

That's going to tie up a lot of the Carbon, as well. I don't have the numbers, but I doubt 1.4% is near enough to form carbides with all the large amounts of other alloying elements you list, so they're kind of wasted. Performance-wise, I think you've basically designed a really expensive version of D2, without a whole lot of actual improvement. Of course, I could be completely wrong.
 
I think that's about like saying pizza, sushi, and cheese cake all mixed together would make the best food.

Or a Corvette, F250, and a Rolls Royce combined would make the best car

Or...well you get the idea.

But like what was said, H1 is technically a ceramic I believe, and 11.8 Cr isn't technically stainless yet, need over 12. And while that is a fair amount of Vanadium, its not that much compared to a lot of 'super' steels. By averaging the 3, I think you are doing just that, making an average steel.
 
FlaMtnBkr said:
I think that's about like saying pizza, sushi, and cheese cake all mixed together would make the best food.

Or a Corvette, F250, and a Rolls Royce combined would make the best car

Or...well you get the idea.

But like what was said, H1 is technically a ceramic I believe, and 11.8 Cr isn't technically stainless yet, need over 12. And while that is a fair amount of Vanadium, its not that much compared to a lot of 'super' steels. By averaging the 3, I think you are doing just that, making an average steel.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I had a feeling the Carbon and Chromium content was low when I put this together.
 
With steels it's all a compromise, to get one thing we must give up another.

That's why with all of the choices available the makers need to fit the steel that would work the best for the said knife and or use that knife will see.

The term jack of all trades and master of none comes to mind here..... We already have more than a few steels that fit into that.

That said something like this or in the general range maybe:

C - 2.3%
CR - 16%
V - 6%
W - 1%
Mn - 3%
Mo - 3%
Si - .5%

Should end up with a complex carbide that would help with high edge retention while giving good hardness in the 63-64 range and having a good compression strength.

But it would have to fully tested, researched and tweaked to come up with the final alloy percentages.
 
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I think SM-100 may be an ideal metal for you to try. It's not steel, but it offers the best combination of characteristics I've heard of. Pretty freaking expensive, though.
 
You have to look at the metallurgy.


I doubt your recipe could even be made.


How the different materials work together at the molecular level is what makes hardenable steels possible.


Lots of time, money and science goes into developing new alloys.






Big Mike
 
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