Heat treat metrics

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TrojanSteel

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Jul 22, 2013
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I understand that heat treat can determine the performance of any steel. I am wondering though, how is one heat treat process compared to another? Meaning, if two pieces of the same steel are hardened to exactly 59, but one is (for example) cryo treated - how will the performance change and how can that be measured? Is it true that the two pieces of steel hardened to the same Rockwell won't necessarily have the same characteristics?
 
True. I'm just now trying to really tackle what hardening does to steel. There's a lot to it. The final hardness is only part of the equation. Someone much more educated can go into it more. Look up plate vs lath martensite, retained austenite, and carbide volume/placement/uniformity and grain structure. There a lot of info about it and it's a beast to tackle until you start chewing on the terms for awhile. There are also a couple of threads I started in the knifemakers discussion forum asking pretty much the same stuff.
 
This thread should be moved to the proper sub-forum....

That's where this question will best be answered.

HT is critical to a steels performance.
Every steel has a 'recommended' hardness from the manufacture that is available on the steels data sheet.

Many times it's given in a range, lets say 56-60HRC.

What happens at the low range of the recommended HRC, the high range, or going off the chart is what testing is for.
That's really the only difinitive way to find out.
 
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