this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2025
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It could add a little but not significant. Not enough to counteract the decarburization from annealing in an air fired oven.
Carburizing surrounds the metal with a carbon source and heats it for hours to get sufficient hard layer thickness. That typically is done in the anneal cycle before the quench shown in the video. High temperature austenitic steel has higher solubility of carbon and a proper quench will produce a fine mix of martensite and carbides. Tempering will precipitate more fine carbides in the martensite and reduce hardness a bit to prevent brittle failure. Sometimes the surface is then peened to build a thin surface layer of compressive stress to prevent crack initiation.
Neat! So much knowledge exists, but you don't know what you don't know. It's crazy. Thanks!