Hello Pete:
You are right. The more you understand your tools the better equipped
you are to use them. I now understand this rating but how does say a
1095 relate if at all to say the A2, C2, M2 ratings you see for steel
and steel tools.

Regards
Paul Geving


On Jul 1, 10:49 am, spaco wrote:
I know this is a woodturning group, but you all have to use steel and
steel alloy tools, so, FYI-----
Iron + Carbon = Steel. (Also "Steel" includes Iron plus a lot
of other alloys these days). Pure iron would have NO carbon.
Real "Wrought Iron" has (usually) less than 0.1 % carbon. Today's
"mild steel" (the stuff you'd get if you went to a steel yard and asked
for a "piece of steel for a backyard project" probably has a carbon
content of between 0.18 % and 0.30%. This is generally considered too
low a carbon content to harden.
When the carbon content gets to about 0.45%, you have a steel that
can be hardened (made brittle) by heating to a red heat and then
quenching in water or oil)---
and then reheated to a lower temperature (tempering) to get rid of
some of the brittleness.
The steel we have been talking about here is called "1095". The
"10" means it's a plain "Carbon Steel", containing iron, carbon, and
hardly anything else. The "95" means is has a carbon content of 0.95%.
That's pretty high for steel.
Just to carry this carbon thing to a conclusion, if the carbon
content goes much above 1.5% to 2 or 3 %, you get cast iron, which
can't be forged by normal processes.

Pete Stanaitis