Calculator › Steels › 14C28N
14C28N for knives
14C28N is Alleima's (formerly Sandvik's) nitrogen-alloyed version of the razor-blade stainless family: 0.62% carbon, 14% chromium and 0.11% nitrogen. Like AEB-L it has very fine carbides, so it takes a keen edge, grinds easily and is tough for a stainless at 60–62 HRC. The nitrogen and extra chromium leave more chromium in solution, so it resists rust better than AEB-L. It is the steel in many well-regarded budget production knives, and it is cheap for a stainless.
Heat treat at a glance
| Good for | Kitchen knives, fillet and paring knives, EDC fixed blades, anything that gets wet. |
|---|---|
| Forging | Stock removal. Sold as cold-rolled strip and not normally forged |
| Normalize | Not applicable; buy annealed |
| Austenitize | 1920 °F (1050 °C), in foil. Alleima's soak is 5 min for 2.5 mm strip, rising to 6 min at 3 mm, 8 min at 3.5 mm and 12 min at 4 mm; start timing once the packet is at temperature. Up to 1975 °F with cryo for a point more |
| Quench | Plates, fast: Alleima wants it below 1100 °F inside 2 min. Then cryo or dry ice (adds 1–2 HRC) |
| Temper | 350–400 °F twice → 60–62 HRC; never above 840 °F (brittle, loses corrosion resistance) |
| Working hardness | 60–62 HRC |
Typical shop values. Confirm against your supplier's datasheet.
Buying it
Cold-rolled strip in metric gauges: 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4 and 4.5 mm (0.059–0.177 in) in 1 1/2 and 2 in widths at Jantz; 0.083–0.156 in, 1 1/2 to 3 in and 6 in wide at Alpha; 0.065 and 0.125 (actual 0.140) in, 1–15 in wide at NJSB. Alleima makes it up to 15 in wide.
- It is metric strip, so a 3 mm bar is 0.118 in, not 1/8 in; the calculator's mm mode lists the real gauges.
- Do the cold treatment. Alleima says it adds about 1–2 HRC: their tables show 59 HRC without it and 62 HRC with it at a 345 °F temper.
Suppliers: New Jersey Steel Baron Alpha Knife Supply Jantz
Work out the bar for your knife in 14C28N
Your knife
Advanced: cuts, tong hold & tang
Stock removal: the bar is cut to blade + tang + clean-up, so the tang section and forged thickness below only change the finished-weight estimate. Switch to Forged and they change the stock length too.
Tang dimensions are estimated from the tang style until you change them. Measuring yours is worth doing: a forged blank's length depends on the tang's cross-section, not on what the tang is called.
Calibration: fill factors & grinding loss
Stock removal: fill factors only change the finished-weight estimate here. They set the stock length when the method is Forged. Grinding loss has no effect at all in stock removal, because the bar is cut straight to the profile and nothing is drawn out.
The fraction of the blade's and tang's bounding box that is actually steel once the bevels are ground. Distal taper is factored in separately (see "Distal taper" below, under What this assumed) and isn't editable here yet. These two fill factors are the ones worth replacing with your own measurements: weigh a finished blade, then adjust until the finished weight below matches the scale.
Buy this bar
What this assumed
Steel is only part of the cost. Add abrasives, handle, heat treat and your time, and see the price that actually pays you.
Forging damascus? Plan the billet: what to stack, how many restacks, and how much of each steel to buy.
Copy link to this calculationor skip ahead and save it as a quote in KraftyQuote
Draw this blank in KraftyDesign, free: the outline at this blade length, height and tang length, as a true-size SVG you can nest on sheet stock or print as a template
Knives to make from 14C28N
Questions
14C28N or AEB-L?
They are close cousins. AEB-L takes a slightly finer edge; 14C28N resists rust noticeably better because of its nitrogen and extra chromium. For a kitchen knife either is a good choice; for a fillet knife or anything that lives wet, 14C28N.
Can 14C28N be forged?
Alleima sells it as cold-rolled strip for stock removal and gives no forging data. Grind it.
How hard does 14C28N get?
About 60–62 HRC with a plate quench and cold treatment, tempered at 350–400 °F. Knife Steel Nerds measured a peak of 63.5 HRC. Alleima warns that tempering above 840 °F (450 °C) makes it brittle and costs corrosion resistance.
Free: the one-page stock size chart
Bar sizes for ten common knife patterns, weight per inch for the common flat-bar sizes, and quick heat-treat numbers for the usual carbon steels. Print it, tape it to the grinder.