High-carbon steel has approximately 0.60 to 1.00% carbon content. Hardness is higher than the other grades but ductility decreases. They are almost always used in a hardened and tempered condition and, as such, are especially wear resistant and capable of holding a sharp cutting edge. Therefore, high carbon steels could be used for springs, rope wires, hammers, screwdrivers, wrenches and knives. The 10xx series (e.g. 1095 steel) is the most popular choice for carbon steel used in knives as well as katanas. AISI 1095 carbon steel is brittle, and has high hardness and strength. 1095 steel, when used in knives, holds a great edge and is very easy to sharpen. However, the properties of this type of steel give it a tendency to easily rust if not oiled and deliberately cared for.
Summary
| Name | High-carbon Steel |
| Phase at STP | N/A |
| Density | 7850 kg/m3 |
| Ultimate Tensile Strength | 685 MPa |
| Yield Strength | 525 MPa |
| Young’s Modulus of Elasticity | 200 GPa |
| Brinell Hardness | 200 BHN |
| Melting Point | 1515 °C |
| Thermal Conductivity | 50 W/mK |
| Heat Capacity | 490 J/g K |
| Price | 1 $/kg |
98%
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Tool Steels
Tool steel refers to a variety of carbon and alloy steels that are particularly well-suited to be made into tools. Their suitability comes from their distinctive hardness, resistance to abrasion and deformation, and their ability to hold a cutting edge at elevated temperatures. With a carbon content between 0.5% and 1.5%, tool steels are manufactured under carefully controlled conditions to produce the required quality. The presence of carbides in their matrix plays the dominant role in the qualities of tool steel. The four major alloying elements that form carbides in tool and die steel are: tungsten, chromium, vanadium and molybdenum. These alloying elements combine with carbon to form very hard and wear-resistant carbide compounds.
Price of High-carbon Steel
It is difficult to know the exact cost of the different materials because it strongly depends on many variables such as:
- the type of product you would like to buy
- the amount of the product
- the exact type of material
Raw materials prices change daily. They are primarily driven by supply, demand and energy prices.
However, as a rule of thumb, stainless steels cost four to fives times much as carbon steel in material costs. Carbon steel is about $500/ton, while stainless steel costs about $2000/ton. The more alloying elements the steel contains, the more expensive it is. Based on that rule, it is logical to assume that the 316L austenitic stainless steel and the 13% Cr martensitic stainless steel will cost less than the 22% Cr and the 25% Cr duplex stainless steels. The nickel-based steels would probably cost at least around the price of the duplex stainless steels. There are obviously numerous kinds of steels from low to high carbon and a wide range of evaluations of stainless steels that change immensely in expense. For example, Inconel 600 (registered trademark of Special Metals), which is one of a family of austenitic nickel-chromium-based superalloys costs about $40000/ton.
Properties of High-carbon Steel – AISI 1095 Steel
Material properties are intensive properties, that means they are independent of the amount of mass and may vary from place to place within the system at any moment. The basis of materials science involves studying the structure of materials, and relating them to their properties (mechanical, electrical etc.). Once a materials scientist knows about this structure-property correlation, they can then go on to study the relative performance of a material in a given application. The major determinants of the structure of a material and thus of its properties are its constituent chemical elements and the way in which it has been processed into its final form.
Mechanical Properties of High-carbon Steel – AISI 1095 Steel
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.
Strength of High-carbon Steel – AISI 1095 Steel
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
Ultimate tensile strength of high-carbon steel is 685 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. Ultimate tensile strength is often shortened to “tensile strength” or even to “the ultimate.” If this stress is applied and maintained, fracture will result. 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 3000 MPa for very high-strength steels.
Yield Strength
Yield strength of high-carbon steel is 525 MPa.
The yield point is the point on a stress-strain curve that indicates the limit of elastic behavior and the beginning plastic behavior. Yield strength or yield stress is the material property defined as the stress at which a material begins to deform plastically whereas yield point is the point where nonlinear (elastic + plastic) deformation begins. Prior to the yield point, the material will deform elastically and will return to its original shape when the applied stress is removed. Once the yield point is passed, some fraction of the deformation will be permanent and non-reversible. Some steels and other materials exhibit a behaviour termed a yield point phenomenon. Yield strengths vary from 35 MPa for a low-strength aluminum to greater than 1400 MPa for very high-strength steels.
Young’s Modulus of Elasticity
Young’s modulus of elasticity of high-carbon steel is 200 GPa.
The Young’s modulus of elasticity is the elastic modulus for tensile and compressive stress in the linear elasticity regime of a uniaxial deformation and is usually assessed by tensile tests. Up to a limiting stress, a body will be able to recover its dimensions on removal of the load. The applied stresses cause the atoms in a crystal to move from their equilibrium position. All the atoms are displaced the same amount and still maintain their relative geometry. When the stresses are removed, all the atoms return to their original positions and no permanent deformation occurs. According to the Hooke’s law, the stress is proportional to the strain (in the elastic region), and the slope is Young’s modulus. Young’s modulus is equal to the longitudinal stress divided by the strain.
Hardness of High-carbon Steel – AISI 1095 Steel
Brinell hardness of high-carbon steel is approximately 200 MPa.
In materials science, hardness is the ability to withstand surface indentation (localized plastic deformation) and scratching. Hardness is probably the most poorly defined material property because it may indicate resistance to scratching, resistance to abrasion, resistance to indentation or even resistance to shaping or localized plastic deformation. Hardness is important from an engineering standpoint because resistance to wear by either friction or erosion by steam, oil, and water generally increases with hardness.
Brinell hardness test is one of indentation hardness tests, that has been developed for hardness testing. In Brinell tests, a hard, spherical indenter is forced under a specific load into the surface of the metal to be tested. The typical test uses a 10 mm (0.39 in) diameter hardened steel ball as an indenter with a 3,000 kgf (29.42 kN; 6,614 lbf) force. The load is maintained constant for a specified time (between 10 and 30 s). For softer materials, a smaller force is used; for harder materials, a tungsten carbide ball is substituted for the steel ball.
The test provides numerical results to quantify the hardness of a material, which is expressed by the Brinell hardness number – HB. The Brinell hardness number is designated by the most commonly used test standards (ASTM E10-14[2] and ISO 6506–1:2005) as HBW (H from hardness, B from brinell and W from the material of the indenter, tungsten (wolfram) carbide). In former standards HB or HBS were used to refer to measurements made with steel indenters.
The Brinell hardness number (HB) is the load divided by the surface area of the indentation. The diameter of the impression is measured with a microscope with a superimposed scale. The Brinell hardness number is computed from the equation:
There are a variety of test methods in common use (e.g. Brinell, Knoop, Vickers and Rockwell). There are tables that are available correlating the hardness numbers from the different test methods where correlation is applicable. In all scales, a high hardness number represents a hard metal.
Thermal Properties of High-carbon Steel – AISI 1095 Steel
Thermal properties of materials refer to the response of materials to changes in their thermodynamics/thermodynamic-properties/what-is-temperature-physics/”>temperature and to the application of heat. As a solid absorbs thermodynamics/what-is-energy-physics/”>energy in the form of heat, its temperature rises and its dimensions increase. But different materials react to the application of heat differently.
Heat capacity, thermal expansion, and thermal conductivity are properties that are often critical in the practical use of solids.
Melting Point of High-carbon Steel – AISI 1095 Steel
Melting point of high-carbon steel is around 1515°C.
In general, melting is a phase change of a substance from the solid to the liquid phase. The melting point of a substance is the temperature at which this phase change occurs. The melting point also defines a condition in which the solid and liquid can exist in equilibrium.
Thermal Conductivity of High-carbon Steel – AISI 1095 Steel
The thermal conductivity of high-carbon steel is 50 W/(m.K).
The heat transfer characteristics of a solid material are measured by a property called the thermal conductivity, k (or λ), measured in W/m.K. It is a measure of a substance’s ability to transfer heat through a material by conduction. Note that Fourier’s law applies for all matter, regardless of its state (solid, liquid, or gas), therefore, it is also defined for liquids and gases.
The thermal conductivity of most liquids and solids varies with temperature. For vapors, it also depends upon pressure. In general:
Most materials are very nearly homogeneous, therefore we can usually write k = k (T). Similar definitions are associated with thermal conductivities in the y- and z-directions (ky, kz), but for an isotropic material the thermal conductivity is independent of the direction of transfer, kx = ky = kz = k.
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