What is Case Hardening?

You do not generally see Case Hardened knives anymore, but it still is sometimes used on custom knives and knives made from low carbon steel, especially when the color case hardened look is wanted.

You mainly see it on old firearms and replicas.

Case hardened steel can reach hardnesses of 55-62 HRC.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• what
• is
• Case
• Hardening
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• case
• hardening
• quietbearr

[hotonpi]

Well done - help explain some questions I had. Thanks!

[QuietBearr]

no problem

[closetpunk2006]

Nice, thanks

[QuietBearr]

glad you liked it!

[bushmag]

Ahh my machete will be casehardend.. since it's from an old chimneyvalve and its pretty soft steel.. nice vid!

[QuietBearr]

have fun with that, looking forward to seeing it!

[LifeisGood762]

So what is the case generally made of that you pack everything in? How do you get it sealed?

Very nice video, thank you. Cool picture at the end with the gun reciever and hammer with beautiful coloration.

[solorip]

.Thanks for the knowledge. Very well done

[RLScheurman]

steel does not have pores, it has a crystalline structure. that kind of mideval thought is very outdated science

[metzindustries]

can you use sugar for case hardening instead of oil? since sugar does not melt off as fast?

[TheMuslimKiller]

@Appclypse Well it's interesting but the Damascus style of hardening / heat treating was discovered accidentally. These days they usually call Damascus style only for it's looks the layered colors. But there are true Damascus steel makers still. Anyway it was discovered by mistake because in Damascus the British had pretty much come in and exhausted most of the mines of different steels, so people didn't have much to work with. So they took a little bit from each mine and combined them together

[Appclypse]

@TheMuslimKiller It's madness how they discover these things, i just can't think of a scenario in which that technique would be discovered. Although i suppose other knowledge would feed into these discoveries, but still these men and women really made some fantastic discoveries furthering the science.

[TheMuslimKiller]

@Appclypse My great grandfather was a blacksmith who made knives, swords, and even guns.

One thing about this industry is that it is very secretive, the techniques are passed down from one generation to the next all in the family. He actually worked with folded Damascus steel, true Damascus not the crap that just looks like it without all the metallic qualities. Since I am not in the business I will reveal one of his secrets.. quenching in human hair, smell is unbearable but worth it.

[Appclypse]

@TheMuslimKiller Yeah cheers for the info. I did a bit of reading after watching this about the technique used by japanese sword smiths and i read about their complexe heat treatment teqniques involving laying the sword packed around carbon rich substances for fixed ammount of times before heating and cooling. Very interesting stuff.

[TheMuslimKiller]

@gamerdude141 The antique look is ugly, although if properly done, you get this rainbow colored look which is beautiful. You can see this on pocket knives like the Kershaw Rainbow Leak.

[TheMuslimKiller]

@Appclypse First of all there are plenty of reasons why one would want a soft inner core and harder outer shell.

Japanese Samurai swords or any type of steel that will suffer blows will need to have a softer inner core. Ok now to Appclypse, yes carbon makes it harder but it will become more brittle, the proper way is to have softer inner core. You get a hard edge which gives you razor edge but soft inside so the sword wont snap off. This is why your teeth are so durable, very soft stuff inside.