Nitrogen-Alloyed Knife Steels

Taste testing knives adds a whole new meaning to lickity-split.

Thanks for another very well written article Larrin.
 
Some members here need to learn their alphabets. N-Nitrogen, Ni -Nickel, Nb -Niobium [ :eek:this one is really Columbium , Cb which we metallurgists should be using ! ]

Now you ask about a subject that was very familiar with , Graphitic Tool Steels developed many years ago by the Timken Co. Working with that on a daily basis brought out the inherent knife making instincts of people .The graphite there was to act as a chip breaker in machining similar to sulfur or lead. It also held some lubrication , important in some uses.
The problem was all those steels had a problem of brittleness ! Though many in the company used it for knives since it was easy to machine and grind it hardly makes a reasonable marketable blade ! :( ..But I could tell you lots of stories about it :rolleyes:
 
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mete said:
Some members here need to learn their alphabets. N-Nitrogen, Ni -Nickel, Nb -Niobium [ :eek:this one is really Columbium , Cb which we metallurgists should be using ! ]

Now you ask about a subject that was very familiar with , Graphitic Tool Steels developed many years ago by the Timken Co. Working with that on a daily basis brought out the inherent knife making instincts of people .The graphite there was to act as a chip breaker in machining similar to sulfur or lead. It also held some lubrication , important in some uses.
The problem was all those steels had a problem of brittleness ! Though many in the company used it for knives since it was easy to machine and grind it hardly makes a reasonable marketable blade ! :( ..But I could tell you lots of stories about it :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Vanax 75 have extremely low friction
 
While Vanax 75 may have low friction the graphitics also have lubricants involved.
For an example .We made helicopter bearings with retainers [ cages ] of powder metal .The original PM , not the new type. They were close to about 99% theoretical density
but they had that little bit of porosity which held lubricant. Enough so that if the oil lines were shot out the helicopter [Viet Nam] could land safely rather than crashing !! :)
 
mete said:
Some members here need to learn their alphabets. N-Nitrogen, Ni -Nickel, Nb -Niobium [ :eek:this one is really Columbium , Cb which we metallurgists should be using ! ]

Now you ask about a subject that was very familiar with , Graphitic Tool Steels developed many years ago by the Timken Co. Working with that on a daily basis brought out the inherent knife making instincts of people .The graphite there was to act as a chip breaker in machining similar to sulfur or lead. It also held some lubrication , important in some uses.
The problem was all those steels had a problem of brittleness ! Though many in the company used it for knives since it was easy to machine and grind it hardly makes a reasonable marketable blade ! :( ..But I could tell you lots of stories about it :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

So no purpose for us, except as plattens or something similar.
 
You can't ignore the properties ! They make stainless rifle barrels out of 416 but the curious thing for me was lack of upper limits for sulfur . ?? Crucible then came out with
their 416 R. That Did Have upper limits and Crucible says good to -40 F [which is also -40 C ] .Haven't heard of any exploding barrels with 416 R !! :)
Carbon range for W-1 , and W-2 have always made me say WHAT ?? Of those two find a good maker and stick with him for your supplier. Numbers do mean things !
 
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