How is INFI made?

tallwingedgoat

tallwingedgoat

Joined
Jan 13, 1999
Messages
1,422
Are we ever going to find out about what the nitrogen do in steel? It's been quite some time since the last relevation.

The only nitrogen steel manufacturing process I've heard of is surface melting of the steel in an Ohmic heating process under a pressurized N2 atomosphere. At very high nitrogen levels it helps with corrosion and strength and is used in high strength marine uses (submarines), but I've never heard of any hardness benefits. Of course this is high nitrogen steel, and INFI is low nitrogen. Is this a similiar process used in INFI steel?

The second question is, how well does INFI perform without nitrogen?Looking at the chemical composition of INFI, I get the feeling its performance as a knife steel should be pretty good even without nitrogen. It is basically an air-hardening medium carbon steel with everything but the kitchen sink added to boost its performance.

Lastly, how would INFI perform with a higher level of carbon with it's current nitrogen content? Surely INFI at say, .85% carbon would still be plenty tough with even higher level of edgeholding.

Sorry for all the weird questions, but its 3:30 in the moring here, tired and frustrated minds need to know. :)
 
now that's one thing I never understood: it's been said that INFI ist "patented", meaning that anyone interested enough could have legal insight into it's composition.
if that wasn't possible for some reason, you could easily have an analysis of he steel being made.
so why is the the formula being kept as a "secret"? (it has been made public by someone who had an analysis beiing made, so why bother?)
what's more, if INFI is really superior to all other knife steels, it would also have numerous industrial applacations.
just tell me why someone would develop a steel like CPM3V. this steel is being praised as very tough and abrasion resistant yand was developed for industial cutting tools that have to be resistant to chipping.
now if INFI is jerry's own pet steel and he owns the rights to it, then why doesn't he license it to some big steel company for selling it to the industry? nobody passes up that opportunity to make big bucks!
what I suspect (without knowing any of the details of the "INFI history") is that it was developed for some weird appilcation we don't know and jerry bought the exclusive rights to use it as a knife steel and sell it to the public. oh, well, and of course you have to work out the heat treat process ;)

note that all of this are wild guesses and I don't mean to be rude. just a lot that doesn't seem logical about this "INFI story"

mfg

david
 
The Analysis of INFI is not a secret, you may find it by searching the forums. However, Jerry is not one to rest on his laurels, and I'd think it safe to bet he has been "tweaking" the composition for some time. Nitrided steels have been around for a while, although I'm not certain if they have been used in knifemaking, ever.

Busse Combat Knives' heat treat is proprietary and, allows the somewhat odd composition of INFI to be used to it's fullest potential.

Let's just say, for the sake of conversation, that you develop a new steel, or at least find that an existing one has superior knife making capabilities. Great, you could revolutionize the cutlery industry right? Maybe...until you discover that the steel costs about 20 times more to manufacture than proven industrial steels and, you find that the singular industrial applications required of these other tool steels negate the need for the use of a steel with multiple properties that costs 20 times as much. No more cutlery revolution.

But...you do realize that this discovery/development/invention, will certainly make a superior knife, in fact, it makes the worlds highest performance knife. Well, there may be no more revolution...but there is the nest best thing, (and certainly more fun)a coup d' etat of the knife industry. Notice I said knife, not cutlery industry.

This is pure speculation on my part, but, if the aforementioned where the case, and I was Jerry, I would guard the specifics of INFI steel with my life. In any case, there is nothing more amusing than a well kept secret, especially when lots of others know there is one, and your the only one with the answer.

Then again, what do I know.
 
The Devil is behind the whole thing!:eek:

Every once in a while you can catch Jerry in some wierd psycometullurgic trance and he'll start mumbling something about "putting me in touch with 'the man'", and being offered "the best deal of his life", and how he's "destined for the big heat treat when his time comes":confused:

I don't know guys, this may not be one to bother with unless you're prepared for your head to start doing 360's:p
 
From what I hear, it's all done on a full moon's night with a calm wind. There must be three virgins present and a howling wolfe. Then there's the part about the CBL.

The heat treat ... that's a whole nuther story.
 
Maybe...until you discover that the steel costs about 20 times more to manufacture than proven industrial steels and, you find that the singular industrial applications required of these other tool steels negate the need for the use of a steel with multiple properties that costs 20 times as much.
Click to expand...

Okay I have some diffiiculty wraping my head around the second half of that sentence. Could you explain it some more? Suffice to say, Busse may not own the patent to the INFI process, or the process is unpatentable. But secrecy is a form of IP protection.

Surely, we can be told just what nitrogen does in steel. This should be a documented scientific phenomenon. What I know about nitrogen steels applications has to do with high nitorgen (5%) steels used for submarines, artifcial joints, and certain parts of nucclear reactor. Basically nitorgen improves the strength, heat resistance, and corosion resistance of steel. I'm just wondering why it's being used in cutlery.

A big problem with N is just getting it to dissolve in steel. May be this will change dramatically with the particle steel technology now available. Instead of making a billet dissolve some on the surface, steel particles can dissolve it to the core.
 
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