Flame Hardening D2 Steel

Aisi a2 tool steel is high carbon high alloy tool steel designed to have excellent wear resistance and toughness.

Flame hardening d2 steel.

This first part of the process changes the molecular structure of the steel and makes it hard but brittle. Looking for a simple method of tempering d2 steel for woodworking knives. D2 tool steel is a versatile high carbon high chromium air hardening tool steel that is characterized by a relatively high attainable hardness and numerous large chromium rich alloy carbides in the microstructure. American iron and steel institute grade d2 tool steel is a high alloy high carbon steel developed for additional strength and toughness.

Flame hardening steel involves heating the steel and then cooling it. This is for a hobby i make some knifes for woodworking usually from o1 steel it is easy to harden and temper. In order to put a hard layer on the steel carbon must be fused at the molecular level into the top centimeter or so of the steel. The steel is composted of 1 percent carbon 3 percent silicon 6 percent manganese 5 3 percent chromium 1 1 percent molybdenum and 2 percent vanadium.

Hardening steel with motor oil is a way of performing what is called the case hardening of steel. If dropped or struck hard it could actually shatter the second part of the process known as annealing involves reheating the steel and. While brittleness may be a common problem with d2 this is very dependent i think on the design and even more so the heat treatment of the blade i own a kershaw outcast which is a big knife with a d2 steel blade perfectly desinged for chopping with despite a fair amound of chopping and hacking with this knife i have never noticed any problem with chipping of the edge. I would like to know if there is a simple way to temper d2 steel without a precision temperature control oven.

It is a surface hardening process in which a thin surface section of a component of hardenable steel is heated rapidly by direct application of high tempe rature flame to a temperature above its upper critical temperature i e it is austenitized and then the component is quickly quenched in water or oil transforming austenite to mar tensite while the. Pure steel is actually too soft for many applications. One way to do this is to make the. The prefix a in the name designates it as an air hardening steel.

Flame hardening is a very versatile process and many complex parts are heat treated with a hand held torch with minimal setup cost. Although other steels with improved toughness or. In these cases operator experience and skill are critical factors.