Decarburization is the number one reason for bad heat treating results.
Heat treating 440c stainless steel knife.
It has one of the highest attainable hardnesses of the corrosion and heat resisting grades.
For those applications where superior machinability is desired and where slightly lower corrosion resistance is satisfactory 440c can be supplied.
Hot rolled and annealed typical chemistryc 1 00 mn 45 si 30 cr 17 00.
Everything i ve been able to pull up on various websites about heat treating 440c is conflicting.
440c is a hardenable chromium steel.
The excellent wear and resistant qualities of 440 c steel make it the natural choice of knifemakers.
Therefore i wouldn t recommend it for hard usage a boning knife for example it would be a great knife for the wet environment fishing knife or kitchen knife and it holds an edge for long which is great for an edc knife carry.
Place it into the oven and heat slowly to between 1 400 and 1 450 degrees fahrenheit.
I hope this helps others who are trying to heat treat their stainless knifes.
440c is not a forgiving steel that can be worked and reworked in a forge hammered cooled heated hammered cooled heated repeatedly without substantial damage to the structure and allotropes desired.
Stresses created in hand forging 440c are destructive and permanent.
The method we use to heat treat 440c ss knife blades.
This grade is magnetic at all times.
Some say oil quench some say air hardening some say you can do either which i didnt think was possible but ive been wrong before and some on either sides of those spectrums talk about a cryo cycle after hardening.
440 c is a high carbon chromium stainless that resists corrosion from fresh water steam crude oil gasoline stains from food acids and fruit.
How to heat treat 440 stainless step 1.
Remove the blade from the.