Metal Terminology Related to Industrial Knives

There’s a lot to know about industrial knives and industrial blades. In particular, the metal Hyde Industrial Blade Solutions uses to make its tool.

Below, Hyde has compiled a list of metal terminology.  The terms defined below will help you better understand what goes into making a quality blade.

Air-Hardening Steel: Also called self-hardening steel, air-hardening steel is when alloy steel is hardened by cooling it with air.

Billet: A piece of ingot that is hot worked by extrusion, forging, or rolling.

Centrifugal Casting: Is a casting technique that uses a mold. The mold is rotated during solidification.

Die Casting: Is when metals are cast into final shapes via metal molds. Alloys used in die casting usually have low melting points meaning they are alloys with aluminum, lead, magnesium, tin, or zinc bases.

Ferrous Metals: Metals derived from iron.

German Silver: German silver is an alloy of copper, zinc, and nickel. Despite its name, German silver contains no silver and probably didn’t originate in Germany.

Heat Treatment: When heating and cooling operations are used to produced desired results in a metal or alloy.

Ingot: Is a casting that will soon be rolled or forged.

Light Metals: Light metals are metals and alloys that have a low specific gravity. Examples of light metals include aluminum, beryllium, and magnesium.

Non-Ferrous Metals: Metals that do not contain iron.

Ore: Is a mineral that contains a metal and that metal can be extracted at a profit.

Pig: An ingot of virgin, or secondary, metal that needs to be re-melted.

Reheating: Heating the work back to hot forming temperatures.

Quenching: The rapid cooling of a metal or alloy by liquids, gases, or solids.

Seam: A crack on the surface of a metal usually produced by a defect in casting or working.

Sterling Silver: Is an alloy of 75 parts copper and 925 parts of silver.

Tempering: Reheating hardened or normalized steel and then cooling it.

Workability: How easy it is for a metal to be worked into a desired shape.

Here are more articles about terms related to industrial knives and blades.

• Terms Related to Bevels on Circular Blades and Straight Knives
• Key Terminology Related to Toothed Straight Blades
• Next Level Terms Related to Industrial Knives
• Key Terms Related to Circular Blades
• Scientific Terms Behind Hand Knives

To contact Hyde IBS to learn how they can manufacture your custom industrial knives, click here.