The 'Super-Bainitic' class of steels (Fe-3Cr-W-V)have a combination of high strength and high toughness. Anyone have any ideas how to retain these properties when rolling down to very thin (~0.010") strip?
Due to high alloy content, tool steels are generally very 'slow' reacting during thermal processing. Thus there is a relatively high proportion of retained austenite after hardening, and the double temper helps to convert this weak, soft constituent into hard, useful martensite.
Terry
I've never heard of a successful local hardening technique for high speed steel. Even if you managed to reduce the hardness away from the edge, you wouldn't increase toughness / flexibility, which is what you're trying to do (I guess).
Welded edge blades are the stock answer to this problem...
