FREE Learning- Why Cryo Treat Knife Steels?Cryogenic Treatment Of Knife Steels

Why Use Liquid Nitrogen? What Is Liquid Nitrogen? What Does The Cryogenic Process Do? How Do You Know It Does That?
Will Liquid Nitrogen Fix a Bad Heat Treatment?

A rotating series of articles from the Keith Nix Knives Blog to raise awareness of important knowledge about custom knives, knife steels, knife handle materials, and knife care/maintenance.

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People ask questions! We will try and provide some answers today about one of the most misunderstood parts of heat treating knives- the cryogenic treatment, or cryogenic process, of quenching knife steels! So read on, and offer feedback if you please.

Do any local knife makers use cryogenic treatment of knives?

Keith Nix Knives uses liquid nitrogen to cryogenically quench all knives made. It has been proven through testing that cryo treatments increase the strength and hardness of knife steels, especially the stainless steel alloys utilized most often in kitchen cutlery.

What Is Liquid Nitrogen?

The air we breathe is 78% gaseous nitrogen. It is all around us as you read this. So there's plenty of this element, but we need it to be liquid and in a container! This involves a process called "air liquefaction," which compresses and chills air to the point where its constituent components separate and liquefy. (carbon dioxide becomes solid at -120F, nitrogen liquefies at -320F, oxygen at -297F, hydrogen at -423F).

Knowing that the liquefier can collect each liquid element at a specific temperature in its pure state, much like a liquor still purifies and collects alcohol, except the temperatures are reversed! Then all that's necessary is to keep it cold or compressed and pump it into my dewar. (The 34 liter vacuum insulated Dewar I own insulates so well that I only fill it about twice a year! Remember, liquid nitrogen boils at temperatures above -320F, so that's amazing!

Why Cryo Knives?

Why Use Liquid Nitrogen In Knife Making?

When heated to a specific temperature, knife steel changes to a softer, nonmagnetic phase called Austenite. That "certain temperature" is modified by the steel's carbon and other alloying content. Then as we quench the blade back to room temperature, it will pass a temperature called Ms "martensite start," where the Austenite begins to convert to the harder, stronger martensite (we want this conversion!).

As the steel cools, it passes a point called Mf, "martensite finish." Due to carbon content and other alloying, Mf temperature can be below room temperature, below freezing, and sometimes even below dry ice temp.(dry ice, or solid CO2 is about -120F). This can leave a percentage of the matrix as "retained austenite," which isn't good for various reasons.

The knife must go straight from room temp to liquid Nitrogen. A delay of even a few minutes, or the sometimes recommended "snap temper" before cryo, stabilizes the retained Austenite. Don't even check hardness; get your blade into cryo now!

What Does LN2 Do?

Liquid Nitrogen is COLD! Three hundred twenty degrees below zero cold. This property alone helps the knife maker produce stronger, harder knives. This is also why liquid nitrogen is the choice for cryo treating to ensure Mf (Martensite Finish). Even dry ice(-120F) won't convert all the retained Austenite in some alloys.

Liquid Nitrogen is cold enough to facilitate the conversion of retained Austenite (RA) to hard martensite in nearly every steel and all the ones I use. There are reasons we want to convert this RA as soon as possible. Here are a few:

1) Retained Austenite makes the matrix of the steel softer.

At levels around 20% or above, retained austenite (RA) negatively affects the bulk hardness of the blade, hindering performance, edge retention, and sharpenability.

2) Under specific stresses, RA can spontaneously convert to untempered martensite.

There is a valid reason we temper our knives after hardening. Untempered martensite is highly brittle and prone to fracture. It has very low toughness. It is prone to chipping. It creates crack initiation points and stress risers. BAD JUJU!

3) RA negatively affects edge retention and sharpenability.

Softer steels are harder to properly sharpen than harder ones. Soft steel doesn't want to take a crisp edge or let go of the burr or foil edge when stropping. And then the weaker "high RA" knife gets dull many times faster.

How Do You Know LN2 Does That?

There are several ways to measure the effects of cryogenic treatment on steel accurately.

1) Rockwell Hardness Tester.

Running sample coupons before and after liquid nitrogen, before and after LN2 AND tempering, and at different temperatures, and checking the hardness of each one is a knifemaker's way of verifying that our processes are giving the results we expect! When this is done, you end up with a graph like the one below, showing peak hardness and the temperatures used!

2) Magnetic Resonance

Since Austenite is nonmagnetic, a very accurate measurement of how much RA is in a given piece of steel can be made. While I lack the means to conduct this test, there is plenty of research available to verify the theory.

Effects Of Cold Treatment On AEB-L

Above is a chart created by Dr. Larrin Thomas (knifesteelnerds.com), showing the effects of austenitizing temperature (hardening temp) and room temp quench vs. home freezer vs. LN2. It is easy to see that cryogenically treated samples are 2-3.5 Rc points harder than room temperature and 2.5 points harder compared to a home freezer treatment. That's quite a difference, and exactly why I use LN2 treatment on all knives at Keith Nix Knives.

Will Cryogenic Treatment Fix A Bad Heat Treatment?

No, it will NOT fix a poor heat treatment. If a custom knife is austenitized at too low a temp, it won't fully harden. Cryo cannot fix that. If the blade is austenitized at too high a temp, awful things can happen, like explosive grain growth, too much carbon in solution, and so much excess RA, even liquid Nitrogen can't save the piece. So cryo isn't a "fix" for anything. It is a logical continuation of proper heat treatment and quench that can enhance desirable properties of the blade.

My goal is to make the very best blades I can produce and to get the geometry right for the knife and the tasks it will perform. The best support for that geometry is a complex steel matrix that supports the carbide structure of the steel, resists edge rolling and chipping, and sharpens easily. Cryogenically treated blades help achieve all those properties.

(Special Thanks to Dr. Larrin Thomas of Knife Steel Nerds for his unending research and generous sharing of his findings with the knife making community.)

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