This study shows the results of two-body abrasive wear tests at different loads of high-carbon metastable austenitic steels (100: 1 wt% C, 4 wt% Mn, 1.5 wt% Si, 0.5 wt% Cr; 100Al: 1 wt% C, 4 wt% Mn, 1.5 wt% Si, 0.5 wt% Cr, 1.5 wt% Al). Hardness measurements before and after wear were conducted to characterise the changes of hardness during wear. 

It was found that the wear behaviour of the steels differs with regard to composition and microstructure. In general, the 100 steel exhibits the higher wear resistance in comparison to the 100Al steel. Furthermore, the bainitised samples show inferior wear behaviour compared to the quenched samples. The 100 steel shows an increase of wear resistance with increasing wear path. On the other hand, the wear resistance of the 100Al steel is constant, i.e. it does not show a dependence on wear path length.

It was also found that the lower the load during the hardness measurement, i.e. the lower the penetration depth, the higher the measured hardness after wear. This indicates that a hardened layer has formed during wear in the near-surface region. Furthermore, the hardness of the 100Al steel after wear is found to be lower than that of the 100 steel. The highest hardness of the 100 steel after wear was measured in the as quenched state and determined to be 1125 ± 125 HV0.01, whereas the as quenched 100Al steel reached a maximum hardness of 900 ± 125 HV0.01 after wear. This corresponds to an increase in hardness during wear by more than 850 HV0.01 in case of the 100 steel.