10 Facts About Carbon steel

Carbon steel is a steel with carbon content from about 0.

High carbon steel has many different uses such as milling machines, cutting tools and high strength wires.

Carbon steel is a popular metal choice for knife-making due to its high amount of carbon, giving the blade more edge retention.

Mild Carbon steel has a relatively low tensile strength, but it is cheap and easy to form.

The reason for the limited use of high carbon steel is that it has extremely poor ductility and weldability and has a higher cost of production.

Carbon steel is broken down into four classes based on carbon content:.

Purpose of heat treating carbon steel is to change the mechanical properties of steel, usually ductility, hardness, yield strength, or impact resistance.

The steel is then quenched at a moderate to low rate allowing carbon to diffuse out of the austenite forming iron-carbide and leaving ferrite, or at a high rate, trapping the carbon within the iron thus forming martensite.

The rate at which the steel is cooled through the eutectoid temperature affects the rate at which carbon diffuses out of austenite and forms cementite.

Case hardening processes harden only the exterior of the Carbon steel part, creating a hard, wear-resistant skin but preserving a tough and ductile interior.