About tool steel

Our choice of High-Carbon Tool-Steel. High-carbon steel holds and takes an edge better than anything else. We guarantee it. I've written a long chapter about tool steel metalurgy in The Perfect Edge. A reader comments: "It's been 38 years since I was in Materials Science class, a course I enjoyed and did well in, and your section on metallurgy should be adopted as a supplement for those courses.

Much better written than any textbook I've ever had to wade through. It is a credit to you on how you've written this that I find it draws the reader in and I just keep reading along. Why are some blades black dark gray and some shiny? These alloying elements combine with carbon to form very hard and wear-resistant carbide compounds. A2 tool steel is an air hardening, cold work steel of group A steels containing molybdenum and chromium. The carbon content in A2 tool steels is high.

A2 offers good toughness with medium wear resistance and is relatively easy to machine. A2 tool steel can be used in many applications which require good wear resistance as well as good toughness. Typical densities of various substances are at atmospheric pressure. Density is defined as the mass per unit volume. Materials are frequently chosen for various applications because they have desirable combinations of mechanical characteristics. For structural applications, material properties are crucial and engineers must take them into account.

In mechanics of materials, the strength of a material is its ability to withstand an applied load without failure or plastic deformation. Strength of materials basically considers the relationship between the external loads applied to a material and the resulting deformation or change in material dimensions.

Strength of a material is its ability to withstand this applied load without failure or plastic deformation. Ultimate tensile strength of tool steel — A2 steel depends on heat treatment process, but it is about MPa. The ultimate tensile strength is the maximum on the engineering stress-strain curve. This corresponds to the maximum stress that can be sustained by a structure in tension.

Often, this value is significantly more than the yield stress as much as 50 to 60 percent more than the yield for some types of metals. When a ductile material reaches its ultimate strength, it experiences necking where the cross-sectional area reduces locally. The stress-strain curve contains no higher stress than the ultimate strength.

Even though deformations can continue to increase, the stress usually decreases after the ultimate strength has been achieved. It is an intensive property; therefore its value does not depend on the size of the test specimen.

However, it is dependent on other factors, such as the preparation of the specimen, the presence or otherwise of surface defects, and the temperature of the test environment and material.

Ultimate tensile strengths vary from 50 MPa for an aluminum to as high as MPa for very high-strength steels. Yield strength of tool steel — A2 steel depends on heat treatment process, but it is about MPa. The yield point is the point on a stress-strain curve that indicates the limit of elastic behavior and the beginning plastic behavior. Carbonitriding of Fasteners. Facts about the Elements: Holmium.

Facts about the Elements: Erbium. Industry 4. Report Abusive Comment Thank you for helping us to improve our forums. Its hardness, resistance to abrasion and ability to retain shape at increased temperatures are the key properties of this material.

Tool steel is typically used in a heat treated condition which provides increased hardness. Several grades have additional resistance to corrosion due to added chemical properties such as vanadium. Also, with certain grades the manganese content is restricted in order to minimize the potential of cracking while water quenching. Other grades offer various methods other than water to quench the material, such as oil.

This is basically a high carbon steel. While it generally has a lower cost it cannot be used where high temperatures are involved. This steel can achieve a high hardness, but it is rather brittle when compared to other tool steels. All W-Grade tool steels must be must be water quenched, which can lead to increased warping and cracking. This is a very versatile, all-purpose tool steel that is characterized by low distortion factor during heat treatment, due to the increased chromium content.

This tool steel has good machinability and a balance of wear resistance and toughness.