Nitrogen steels

Revolverrodger

Revolverrodger

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Jul 23, 2007
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Nitrogen adds toughness and corosion resistance to steel. I wonder why it is not used more widely in knives.
I think H1 is an example of a stainless nitrogen steel very useful in dive knives
Are there mire examples of nitrigen steels ?
What about nitrogen tool steels to be used in large knives ? I think that the old INFI had nitrogen but I don't know of any other
 
INFI is still supposed to use Nitrogen in it, though the exact makeup is still rather unknown, and seems to fluctuate a little from time to time.

Vanax (AKA Vanax 35) is a very good Nitrogen steel, but it is very expensive. Z-FiNit is another good one, and Cronnidur 30 is similar in makeup to Z-FiNit.

There are a few others that I know I'm not remembering off the top of my head, but those are the ones that come to mind immediately.
The main reason there is a shortage of Nitrogen steels is because the process to make a steel using nitrogen as the base instead of carbon is still very complicated and rather expensive, making the steel usually much harder to purchase.
You can add some Nitrogen to a steel that still uses carbon as the basis, but that is more of a small addition that simply improves some of the properties of the steel, whereas replacing carbon in a steel with Nitrogen will have a much more noticeable effect on the performance. That's what the main difference between something like Vanax and 14C28 (which does have a small amount of nitrogen in it, yes).
Vanax has a very small amount of carbon in it for the performance and harness it is able to achieve (only .20%), and the majority of the carbon is replaced by Nitrogen (1.90%), but is still able to out-perform steels with much more carbon in them like S35VN (1.45%) in many categories that are generally associated with higher carbon content.

It's a very interesting change to the steel chemistry, and it can create some really good characteristics. I personally love Nitrogen steels, and have had a lot of fun with some small test blades I had made for me out of Vanax 35 and Z-FiNit.

Generally Nitrogen steels tend to be VERY stainless too. H1 is a perfect example of steel that has had the carbon in it entirely replaced by Nitrogen, and that is why it CANNOT rust at all.
When you reduce the overall carbon in the steel, it makes it much harder for it rust, and so Z-FiNit is a steel that is almost impossible to do an acid wash on, because you can have it sit in the acid for over an hour and it still won't have even darkened much. Super cool stuff.
 
There are a lot of steels that have had nitrogen added, while still using carbon. N680, 14C28N, and others come to mind. N680 is very, very corrosion resistant in my personal experience. Of course, as mentioned, there are steels that use nitrogen instead of carbon, like H1 that will not rust at all.
 
H-1, N680 and LC200N all are low carbon and high chromium steels with nitrogen.
 
Nitrogen add corrosion resistance and toughness at the cost of hardness and strength.

You will barely see any steel that designed for extreme duty contain any N in it except the one that use in salt water or acidic environment.
 
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Nitrobe-77.

Can give you a nice 62.5HRC after hardening and still be very corrosion resistant, tough and with good strength.

Why don't we see more Nitrogen steels. As an example. To produce steels like Vanax and Nitrobe-77 is extremely costly.

I would not be surprised of Vanax 75 could be pushed to 65+ hrc. But we won't find out soon.
 
Another one that hasn't been mentioned is X15TN. I have an older BM Griptilian H2O that has an X15TN blade. They recently switched to N680, I think. I love that steel. I think it has better performance than 154CM. I use it as my outdoor knife, so it sees lots of water, sweat, and use. I have been very impressed with edge retention, and it takes a REALLY fine edge. Of course, I've seen no problems with corrosion, and it's actually been a very tough steel. I beat on it pretty hard, and have dropped it about 200', open, while rock climbing.
 
Alfazulu said:
Another one that hasn't been mentioned is X15TN. I have an older BM Griptilian H2O that has an X15TN blade. They recently switched to N680, I think. I love that steel. I think it has better performance than 154CM. I use it as my outdoor knife, so it sees lots of water, sweat, and use. I have been very impressed with edge retention, and it takes a REALLY fine edge. Of course, I've seen no problems with corrosion, and it's actually been a very tough steel. I beat on it pretty hard, and have dropped it about 200', open, while rock climbing.
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Nice. I have a H&K X-15-T.N. folder made by Boker from 10+ years ago after I got a H&K USP 45. That was one of the best corrosion resistant steels back then with low carbon, nitrogen and high chromium. "This French steel was developed for the aircraft industry for jet ball bearings, as well as the medical industry for scalpels. It has the ability to resist rust in the worst of conditions while maintaining ample edge retention."
 
It strikes me that this is similar to Bainite. Sure it is a steel state that works for knives and is tough and reasonably hard, but it isn't actually better than martensite for the main things that knives are for.
 
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