Not totally necessary, but if you want stainless to reach
anywhere near it's potential, you need to cryo.
Some use dry ice/acetone, and that's not quite truly cryo.
But it is really cold.
Like freeze the "Witches tit solid as her brass bra" cold.
So I consider cryo. Almost.
Very limited knowledge here. So bear with me.
I had a suspicion about nitriding, Google fu confirmed.
Knife steel is hardened at 1400-1500F, plus.
Much of the tempering process is in the 300-450F range.
Salt Bath Nitriding is done around 1000F.
So, you couldn't use the process to harden, or temper.
Used after heat treat, it would probably anneal your steel,
making it very soft.
And doing it before heat treat would either cause it to be ruined
by the hardening temps, (2000F plus for stainless) or
it would make it too hard to do any finish work after heat treat.
Before is an interesting thought.
It might prevent decarb if it made it throufgh the quench.
If so, you might not need to do any finish grinding.
Last edited by Dillonbuck; 03/04/20.
