Just occurred to me...
I don't think I made it clear that nitriding at 450C or so isn't standard for most steels. Normally it's done at 520-590C. Nitriding to get a compound layer will normally increase corrosion resistance and should greatly increase corrosion resistance if the piece is...
Most of the references I have are in German but I can summerise them if that would help.
In the mean time I've attached a paper I found for free which covers what I was thinking about though it deals with 314L instead of 304.
Since I'm very new to this forum can someone point me to any of...
What temperature was the 304 nitrided at?
When it's done above ~450C you'll wreck the corrosion resistance since any Cr at the surface will be bound up as nitrides instead of staying in the bulk helping against corrosion.
That could be the cause of the pitting though microstructure does of...
