Nitriding, Carburizing, Case Hardening?

[nullack]

Has anyone looked at nitriding knives?

Or carburizing or some other form of case hardening?

Any other type of surface treatment?

Curious is all

 

[scottickes]

Case hardening really doesn't have a place in the knife world. Think about it this way. If you case harden a knife, it's hard on the outside and soft on the inside. This would make a very tough knife, with a hard outer shell. However, after repeated sharpenings, you could expose the soft core at the edge, resulting in soft material at the cutting edge.

 

[Dan Pierson]

Nitriding a 3V kitchen knife might be interesting. In my limited understanding a problem with nitriding is that it involves temperatures around 800F. Fortunately this is less than typical 3V tempering. 3V is very tough but not stainless. A gold nitrided 3V blade could be very thin for good slicing ability and the coating would make most of the knife stainless. It could also be quite pretty.

Doubt that I'll ever pursue this though -- I don't have any plans to work with 3V and the result might well not be worth the effort and cost.

I have heard that nitriding with faithfully highlight every defect in your finish...

 

[Ed Caffrey]

Nitriding was popular several years ago. There were a number of outfits doing it for makers, and the big draw was the Rc hardness it offered. Many jumped on the bandwagon without thinking it through..... the hard nitriding was/is a very thin surface layer, and once folks figured out that it was gone on the cutting edge after the first time the blade was sharpened, it sorta died out.

 

[nullack]

Thanks gents

 

[caribooblades]

I case harden the bottom sides of farrier's knives. It works really well.
Our farrier's knife stock is removed from the top. The burr created is removed from the bottom side.

Scott