June 5, 20224 yr M2 steel 1190 C 1 hr and 620 C double tempering for 2 hrs. Etched using 5% Ni for 3 min. Around 100 um white region with big grains at the outside of the materials, the hardness is 200 HV. The brown region hardness is 750 HV. What could be this soft white region with big grains? How should I reharden it? Thanks!
June 5, 20224 yr Welcome from the Ozark mountains. If you put your general location in your profile you may have members close enough to visit.
June 5, 20224 yr I'd suggest consulting a professional metallurgist. M2 is not usually a steel blacksmiths have experience with!
June 6, 20224 yr If this is for knife making you might try asking on some of the knife maker forums. While it not a common steel for knifes a Google search showed some of the Blade forums guys have used it
June 6, 20224 yr but if it were about blades, wouldn't he have posted it in the HT knife section rather than general
June 22, 20223 yr That is probably a region of decarbuization. That happens more rapidly in this grade than many more common blade steels. You can minimize it by packing the blade in carburizing compound during austenitizing. You can grind it off too. In theory you could recarburize the are that list carbon, but it is much simpler to prevent it from the beginning.
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