Mr. Mark, thank you for drawing our attention to the book Steel Metallurgy for the Non-Metallurgist by J. D. Verhoeven. It is nice introduction into steel metallurgy for people with some background in physics or chemistry and hopefully also for knife enthusiasts who are able to overcome some background gaps (vacancies in metallurgical terminology).
The above quoted book is not available for free on the Net, the full cost on Amazon is circa $70. Fortunately prof. Verhoeven granted any private user permission to download and print a copy of an almost identical book entitled: Metallurgy of Steel for Bladesmiths & Others who Heat Treat and Forge Steel.
It can be downloaded here http://www.hybridburners.com/documents/verhoeven.pdf
I hope this book can help us to catch on to basic ideas of metallurgy even if we have no formal metallurgical education. It is not an easy reading because metallurgy is not an elevator pitch.
Jan
The above quoted book is not available for free on the Net, the full cost on Amazon is circa $70. Fortunately prof. Verhoeven granted any private user permission to download and print a copy of an almost identical book entitled: Metallurgy of Steel for Bladesmiths & Others who Heat Treat and Forge Steel.
It can be downloaded here http://www.hybridburners.com/documents/verhoeven.pdf
I hope this book can help us to catch on to basic ideas of metallurgy even if we have no formal metallurgical education. It is not an easy reading because metallurgy is not an elevator pitch.
Jan