The Complete Guide to Tool Steel Grades and Their Uses

Tool steel material is essential for many manufacturing and engineering processes. It’s what creates quality tools for a wide range of applications, allowing every job to be done precisely and flawlessly. Tool steel allows you to create industrial moulds and dies, offering a high-performance material that can withstand intense pressure, abrasion and heat. It’s perfect for demanding environments and heavy-duty use, as it has exceptional strength and toughness to be used over and over again. Tool steel comes in various grades, each of which all have their own unique uses. This means that you need to choose the right grade for the job, otherwise you can struggle to gain a flawless finish.

As all of the different tool steel grades offer something unique and are made for various applications, you need to understand the difference between each and know what they can be used for. Our guide helps you to wrap your head around the different grades of tool steel so that you can make sure that you choose the right one for your project. Explore this material’s properties, differences, applications and grades to help you find the perfect solution for every task.

What is Tool Steel Material?

Before you can understand the different grades, you need to know what tool steel material actually is. This is basically a metal that’s designed for making a range of different tools to suit your needs, allowing you to precisely machine and engineer various products. The metal is made from a group of carbon and alloy steels to make it tough and resistant to wear, so you can cut, shape, stamp or form other materials once made into a tool. It can maintain hardness under stress and constant heavy-duty applications, withstanding high temperatures to offer you a reliable tool that can last for years to come.

Tool steel is different from standard structural steels because it’s made up of a combination of alloying elements, like tungsten, chromium, molybdenum, vanadium and cobalt. Having these elements improves the steel’s hardness, toughness and ability to withstand abrasion.

The Properties of Tool Steel

Tool steel has many unique properties that make it ideal for harsh conditions and demanding applications. The main properties of this material are:

• Exceptional hardness to allow tools to keep their cutting edges sharp.
• Impressive heat resistance to maintain strength at very high temperatures.
• Great wear resistance to make tools last for longer, preventing breakage and wear.
• Improved dimensional stability to always give you precision in multiple applications.
• Unmatched toughness and strength to prevent cracking and breakage during constant heavy-duty use.

What Are the Uses of Tool Steel?

The uses of tool steel can be highly varied because it can create a wide range of tools for an array of applications. It can make punches, dies, shear blades, industrial knives and precision tooling to suit your needs and individual project. This means that the material can easily make other products using a multitude of materials, such as metals, plastics and woods. They typically come in a softer condition that is machined into the tools you need before it’s heat-treated to improve the hardness.

Types of Tool Steel Material

Tool steel material comes in different types, which all have different grades. This means that there are specific tool steels for particular applications. Each type can make different tools that provide unique properties to suit your project needs, and every task within it. It’s important to know the different types of tool steel to make sure that you get the right one for the job, allowing you to make high-quality tools that last and offer unparalleled precision.

High Speed Tool Steel

This type of tool steel material is designed to create tools for machines that need to work at high speeds and temperatures. It can also be used for producing a variety of cutting tools that have to work at high speeds and hot temperatures. This steel can withstand heavy, constant use and retain a sharp cutting edge and its hardness at very high temperatures. It can do this due to the high amounts of tungsten, molybdenum and vanadium that it’s made from.

Shock-Resisting Tool Steel

Shock-resistant tool steel is crafted to absorb and take on harsh impacts and jolts, without breaking, shattering or fracturing. These tool steels usually have chromium and nickel in them to further improve their toughness and impact resistance.

Cold-Working Tool Steel

This type of tool steel material is typically hardened in oil or air to give you unparalleled wear resistance and almighty strength when used at low temperatures. It’s made for tools that are used in colder temperatures to provide a precise, flawless finish. It contains alloying elements to offer exceptional durability, toughness and resistance to wear.

These can come in different grades, such as O-series, A-series and D-series. The O-series is great for moderate wear applications, while the A-series is ideal for any tasks that have constant, heavy-duty use because it has an impressive wear resistance and high stability. As for the D-series, this is the best for die-casting and stamping dies due to its hardness.

Hot-Working Tool Steel

Hot-working tool steel is designed to maintain impressive hardness when used on projects that need high temperatures. This type of material boasts an extraordinary resistance to heat deformation, allowing you to have a quality, sharp tool under extreme heat without it bending, snapping or breaking. On top of this, the steel can be hardened by air or oil to create the exact tool you need for the job, depending on the grade.

Water-Hardening Tool Steel

As for water-hardening tool steel, this undergoes a hardening process by putting it in water. This gives the steel a moderate hardness, but it does have less resistance to wear, heat and corrosion compared to other types of tool steel material. However, this type of tool steel is very cost-effective, allowing you to create quality tools without the high cost.

The Different Grades of Tool Steel

Many of the types of tools steel can come in different grades, each of which offers something unique. The grades of tool steel impact the outcome you want when creating quality tools for specific purposes. This means that it’s important to choose the right grade for your project, so that you can have the best tools for the job.

O1

O1 tool steel grade stands for oil-hardening, which means the grade is for any hot-working tool steel that’s been hardened in oil. This is a popular grade for many because it’s very adaptable. It can be used for a variety of tools and applications, while offering unmatched quality. This grade has a winning combination of hardness and toughness, as well as impressive machinability, making it an ideal choice for heavy-duty use. It’s typically used for tools that need to have a medium level of abrasion resistance.

D2

D2 is typically the tool steel grade for cold-working steel. This is known for its excellent wear resistance because it has a high carbon and chromium content. D2 tool steel is very hard and brittle with a high abrasion resistance, which makes it ideal for cutting tools.

H13

This grade of tool steel is usually for hot-working steel. It has a great resistance to heat, allowing the tool to be used at high temperatures, as well as impressive thermal fatigue. This material can keep its hardness and toughness in high heat to make tools that need to carry out hot-working applications.

S7

S7 is the grade for shock-resistant tool steel. This is typically air-hardened to provide high toughness and impact resistance. S7 is a great material for making tools that need to withstand a lot of mechanical shock.

A2

The A2 tool steel grade is the grade for air-hardening steel. This gives you a wonderful balance of toughness and wear resistance, which helps it to minimise deformation during heat treatment. A2 is particularly useful for creating intricate tools.

M2/ M42

M2 and M42 grades are both for high-speed tool steel materials. M2 can keep impressive hardness and resistance to wear when working at speed and even higher temperatures. It can also maintain a sharp cutting edge to give you the best performance possible for a longer time. M42 is a cobalt-alloyed tool steel that offers unmatched wear resistance and toughness, particularly at high cutting speeds. It can also withstand high temperatures.

W1

This type of tool steel grade is typically the water-hardening tool steel type, which is easy to harden and used for general-purpose tools. W1 is made with a huge amount of carbon to improve its hardness. However, this grade is more fragile than others.

The Hardness Grades of Tool Steel

The grades of tool steel each have their own level of hardness, which is important to know to be able to choose the right one for your project. Understanding the hardness grades of tool steel shows you which tool steel can be used for heavy-duty applications and which are best for tools that need to carry out more precise, fragile work.

• H13 has the lowest hardness of 50-55.
• W1 has a hardness of 55-64.
• A2 has a hardness of 57-62.
• O1 has a hardness of 58-64.
• D2 has a hardness of 58-62.
• M2 has a hardness of 62-65.
• M42 has the highest hardness of 64-66.

Tool Steel Uses for Each Grade

Each grade of tool steel has its own unique uses. This is vital to know for you to choose the right steel for the job. The tool steel uses of these grades help determine which type you can use for the type of tools you want to create.

O1

The uses of tool steels that are in the grade O1 are very versatile. However, this grade is best to use for cutting tools, punches, shear blades and dies.

D2

D2 tool steel is best used for tools that need to face constant use, which means they need to provide high-wear resistance. It’s good for blanking punches, cutting tools and dies.

H13

This type of tool steel is best for tools that need to be used at high temperatures. It’s ideal for dies for forging, plastic moulds and extrusion dies.

S7

The tool steel uses of S7 are any application that creates a high shock impact. This means that it can be used for cold chisels, riveting tools, jackhammer bits and pneumatic tools.

A2

A2 is typically used for tools that need to have a balance of toughness and wear resistance, such as dies and punches.

M2/ M42

M2 uses are usually for high-speed cutting tools. This means that it’s great to make drills, milling cutters, reamers and taps. As for the uses of tool steel in M42, this is best used for high-performance cutting tools. This includes milling cutters, saw blades and drills.

W1

W1 tool steel material is a grade that’s made for simple and low-stress tools. It can make quality cutting tools for light-duty applications, such as punches and chisels.

How to Choose the Right Tool Steel Grades for Your Project

So, how do you choose the right tool steel grades for your project? Having the right grade of steel ensures that you can create the perfect, high-quality tools you need for every task. Choosing the best tool steel all depends on certain factors of your project, including:

• How much wear resistance is needed for your project? If the applications require a lot of friction or abrasion, you need a grade that has a higher hardness and wear resistance.
• The operating temperature at which the tool needs to work. You need a high heat resistance for hot work and high-speed work.
• The machinability you need for the tool. Some tool steels are easier to machine than others, which can cause issues with efficiency.
• The impact resistance you need. Some tools may need to face heavy impacts and shocks.

Our Collection of Quality Tool Steel

At Rapid Metals, we have a wide range of tool steel to suit your needs. We stock high-quality tool steel material that comes in both D2, O1 and silver steel. These are extremely wear-resistant and strong to help you have tools made for heavy-duty applications. You can make a range of tools with our collection, such as punches, dies, cutting tools and industrial knives. Explore our range and find the right size quality tool steel for your project needs. If you can’t find the size required, we also offer a cut-to-size service for you to ensure you have enough material and prevent wastage.