14C28N Stainless Steel HARDENED, 3 x 50 x 250 mm

HARDENED Stainless Knife Making Steel bar, 14C28N in 3 x 50 x 500 mm

Already heat treated (hardened and tempered to 58-60 HRC) by the team at RJ Heat treatment in Moorebank, NSW.

Ready to be ground into blades, keeping them cool by dunking in water regularly while grinding. Difficult to drill as they are hardened already.

Swedish Stainless Steel 14C28N from Alleima (formerly Sandvik), a popular stainless due to relative ease of heat treat and good edge retention.

This is a later, improved version of 12C27 with the same easy heat treat but finer grain size and better edge retention. Bit of a favourite of ours, since our ScandiChef blades are made in this steel so we can safely say this is as great blade steel.

Size of steel bar is 3 mm thick, approx 50 mm wide and about 500 mm long.

The steel comes already annealed from Sweden, annealed means the steel is "soft" and workable with hand tools.

It can be drilled, filed, ground and shaped with relative ease. Look up hand filing jig on youtube for an easy to make hand filing jig for making even bevels.

This steel will need to be heat treated, either at home in temperature controlled gas forge or kiln, or by sending it away for professional heat treatment. 

From Sandvik:

Sandvik 14C28N® is a martensitic stainless chromium steel with a chemistry optimized for high quality professional knife applications. The chemical composition provides a unique combination of properties including:

• Excellent edge performance
• Very high hardness
• Good corrosion resistance

Sandvik 14C28N® is mainly recommended for knife applications which put very high demands on edge sharpness, edge stability and corrosion resistance. Examples are pocket knives, chefs knives, hunting knives and fishing knives.

Heat treatment:

• Temperature 1050 C 
• Hold time 5 min
• Quench in oil 
• Temper immediately at 200 C for 30 mins for about 58-59 HRC*
• Optionally: Basic cryo before tempering at -20 C (normal freezer) adds another 1-2 HRC 

 *Sandvik describe tempering time as only 30 mins per 2.5 mm thickness, this can be extended

Rehardening is not recommended, get it right the first time. 

Link to Sandvik heat treatment : https://www.materials.sandvik/en-au/materials-center/material-datasheets/strip-steel/14c28n/