M42 Steel: Premium High-Speed Tool Steel for Sale

Unparalleled Hardness and Wear Resistance

Ideal for Cutting Tools and Dies

Available in Various Sizes and Forms

Aobo Steel： Your reliable supplier of M42 steel

Aobo Steel focuses on providing high-quality yet affordable steel to small and medium-sized factories worldwide, particularly excelling in the tool steel sector with strong supply capabilities and deep technical expertise.

Since beginning to process tool steel in 2003 and expanding to supply steel raw materials to factories worldwide in 2017, Aobo Steel has navigated numerous peaks and valleys. Throughout this journey, the company has steadfastly maintained its original mission: to provide high-quality products at affordable prices while ensuring excellent service.

M42 tool steel is one of the steel grades offered by Aobo Steel. Due to its cobalt content, M42 steel price is very high in China. However, Aobo Steel remains committed to its original mission of providing customers with the best possible prices and ensuring complete pricing transparency.

Application Scenarios

M42, due to its cobalt content, has a very high hardness. Its uses are as follows:

1.S uitable for manufacturing various wear-resistant and impact-resistant tools for heavy-duty cutting.

2. Used for manufacturing various high-hardness and ultra-high-hardness saw blades, drills, taps, broaches, hobs, and milling cutters.

3. Used for advanced punching dies, screw dies, and punches that require toughness and have complex shapes.

4 . Used for cold forging dies, drawing dies, etc.

5. Recommended for use in cold stamping product industries such as watch case factories and screw factories.

Advantages of choosing Aobo Steel as your M42 supplier

Before shipment, all goods undergo 100% strict component testing, UT testing, and hardness testing.

With over 20 years of experience in forged tool steel production, we have a deep understanding of our products.

We provide free cutting services.

M42 steel properties

After discussing the many uses and advantages of M42 steel, you might wonder, “What is M42?” Let’s explore its properties. M42 is a type of high-speed tool steel, often referred to as M42 high-speed steel. When searching for an equivalent to M42 steel, the DIN standard designation 1.3247 is a common and widely accepted standard.

Chemical composition

Carbon (C)	Chromium (Cr)	Molybdenum (Mo)	Tungsten (W)	Cobalt (Co)	Vanadium (V)	Manganese (Mn)	Silicon (Si)	Phosphorus (P)	Sulfur (S)	Copper (Cu)	Nickel (Ni)
1.05 – 1.1	3.5 – 4.25	9.0 – 10.0	1.15 – 1.85	7.75 – 8.75	0.95 – 1.35	0.15 – 0.40	0.15 – 0.65	0.03 max	0.03 max	0.25 max	0.3 max

Heat treatment

Hot Working Specifications
Heating temperature: 1090–1150℃.
Annealing Specifications
Annealing temperature: 840–870℃,
Furnace cooling,
Hardness: 235–369 HBW.
Quenching and Tempering Specifications
Preheating temperature: 732–843℃,
Quenching temperature:
- Salt bath furnace: 1170℃,

Controlled atmosphere furnace: 1188℃,
Cooling: oil, air, or salt bath,
Tempering temperature: 540–600 / 538℃,
Hardness: 66–69 HRC / 66 HRC.

Regarding M42 steel Hardness, the hardness after heat treatment can reach 67 to 70 HRC, but there are also special heat treatment methods that achieve a hardness of 67 to 68 HRC.

M42 steel Vs. other steels

In daily production, we often encounter situations where we need to choose mold steel, so we compare the most common ones: M2 vs M42 steel. We will list the data for these two types of steel and present them in a table for comparison.

Property	M2 Steel	M42 Steel
Type	High-speed steel	Cobalt high-speed steel
Composition	C: 0.8%, W: 6%, Mo: 5%, Cr: 4%, V: 2%	C: 1.0%, Mo: 9.5%, Cr: 4%, V: 2%, Co: 8%
Hardness (HRC)	62-65	68-70
Wear Resistance	Good (room temperature)	Excellent (high temperatures)
Red Hardness	Good (up to 600°C)	Superior (up to 650°C+)
Toughness	Good (10-12 ft-lb)	Good to moderate (8-10 ft-lb)
Corrosion Resistance	Poor	Poor
Machinability	Good	Fair
Cost	Moderate	High
Typical Uses	General cutting tools, cold work tools	High-performance cutting tools for difficult materials

Get Started Today

Enhance your operations with the unstoppable strength of M42 steel.

Request your quote to learn more about custom pricing options and delivery timelines.

AISI M42 steel equivalents DIN 1.3247 and JIS SKH59

Under the German and Japanese steel systems, M42 steel is equivalent to DIN 1.3247 and JIS SKH59.

Introduction to DIN 1.3247

1.3247 chemical composition

Carbon (C)	Silicon (Si)	Manganese (Mn)	Phosphorus (P)	Sulfur (S)	Chromium (Cr)	Molybdenum (Mo)	Tungsten (W)	Vanadium (V)	Cobalt (Co)
1.05 – 1.15	≤ 0.70	≤ 0.40	≤ 0.03	≤ 0.03	3.5 – 4.5	9.0 – 10.0	1.2 – 1.9	0.9 – 1.3	7.5 – 8.5

1.3247 steel physical properties

Density: 8.12 – 8.14 g/cm³
Thermal Conductivity: Around 27.2 W/m·K
Coefficient of Thermal Expansion: Varies with temperature, but generally around 11.5 x 10^-6 /°C
Modulus of Elasticity: Around 200-224 GPa

Introduction to JIS SKH59

SKH59 steel is a high-speed steel series and powder metallurgy tungsten tool steel from Nachi-Fujikoshi (NACHI) of Japan. This steel features high hardness, high hot hardness, and high temperature hardness, and it is easy to grind.

SKH59 chemical composition

Carbon (C)	Silicon (Si)	Manganese (Mn)	Chromium (Cr)	Molybdenum (Mo)	Tungsten (W)	Vanadium (V)	Cobalt (Co)
1.00 – 1.15	≤ 0.50	≤ 0.40	3.5 – 4.5	9.0 – 10	1.2 – 1.9	0.9 – 1.4	7.5 – 8.5

SKH59 steel physical properties

Property	Value
Density	8.12 g/cm³
Hardness (HRC)	Up to 68-70
Modulus of Elasticity	210 GPa
Thermal Conductivity	20.0 W/m·K
Specific Heat Capacity	420 J/kg·K
Coefficient of Thermal Expansion	9.4 × 10⁻⁶ /K (20 – 100°C)