1.1 This practice for macroetch testing has been found to be a useful and reliable method for evaluating the quality of tool steel bars. It is used as a quality control and inspection test to reveal by deep acid etching the macrostructure in specimens cut from bars and to show the presence of such conditions as pipe, cracks, porosity, segregation, or foreign material. The etched surface is generally examined visually, but magnification up to about 10× is occasionally employed.

1.2 The values stated in inch-pound units are to be regarded as standard. The values given in parentheses are mathematical conversions to SI units that are provided for information only and are not considered standard.