Tool steel
M42 Tool Steel
Manufacturer or standards-body identification; product values do not apply to every form or condition.
Identity / state reference
What distinguishes this material
The BÖHLER table marks S500 as approximately M42 and distinguishes its cobalt-bearing chemistry from S600/M2.
- Designation in this reference
- M42
- Forms covered by the sources
- Supplier high-speed steel product; exact certified M42 form must be confirmed.
- States to distinguish or confirm
- Confirm supplied anneal and final hardening/tempering condition.
- Temperature and exposure
- No universal service-temperature limit or room-temperature property set is assigned. Use the cited product document and the purchase certificate.
Property evidence for a stated condition
No condition-specific numerical table is reproduced here
The linked sources establish the identity and the stated product/state scope. Obtain the row for your actual form, section, treatment and test conditions before adopting strength, hardness or a thermal limit.
Resolve these conditions next
- What product standard, edition and complete grade are on the material certificate?
- What product form, section size and delivery/heat-treatment condition will be machined?
For machining, take the exact grade, supplied condition and measured hardness where applicable into the tool maker’s application data. A generic material-family speed is not a substitute for an operation and tool-specific recommendation.
Sources and what they establish
Reviewed 23 October 2026. A source’s publication date and the review date are different. The scope below identifies the fields checked.
BÖHLER high-speed steel programme
Grade table: S600 ~M2 regular carbon, S500 ~M42, S200 T1; approximation marks retained.
BÖHLER high-speed steel programme ↗Source identity, a named product example and a supplied-batch certificate are different evidence. Cross-standard similarity does not approve substitution.
Corrections from the previous article
- Do not remove the ~M42 qualifier or treat hardened cutting-tool hardness as annealed-stock hardness.
- Withdraw the legacy generic hardness (235–270 HB (annealed)) and tensile-strength (2,620 MPa (380 ksi) hardened) pair: the old page does not establish a matching product, heat treatment, section and test source.
- Remove the unsupported cutting-speed table and machinability percentage; select tooling only after the actual material condition is known.
Other references in Tool steel
Related references, not equivalent substitutes.