Posted by deadrange on July 07, 2008 at 15:50:58:
To the etching gods:
I am working with a low alloy steel. Roughly 2% Chrome with 1.5% W added. When etched in Nital or Vilella's Reagent, I believe much of my bainite structure is appearing as ferrite. I know this by microhardness testing. the ferrite has the same hardness as areas of bainite. I think it might be related to the the orientation of the grains, and the effective rate of etch.
I am looking for a suggestion to help bring out the carbides in the structure. I am thinking that a diluted Picral may be my best solution at this moment, but I was hoping for any other suggestions.