<p>Ferritic stainless steel is a relatively cost-effective alternative to austenitic stainless steel for general engineering applications. In this work, we report the effect of cryogenic quenching and cryogenic quenching with 10 % forging on the alteration of microstructure, tensile and corrosion behaviour of an AISI 430 ferritic stainless steel. Microstructural analysis of normalised, as-cryo-quenched and cryo-quenched + cryo-forged specimens were conducted using electron backscattered diffraction to determine grain size, crystallographic texture and geometrically necessary dislocation density. Corrosion behaviours were examined by a combination of immersion and potentiodynamic polarisation tests. It was observed that cryogenic quenching led to a favourable strength–ductility balance; whereas, cryogenic quenching + forging led to substantially increased yield strength at the expense of ductility. Additionally, these heat treatments have negative impact on corrosion resistance in 0.1&#xa0;M H₂SO₄ as well as 3.5 wt.% NaCl solutions even after expanding the passive range and raising pitting potential. This behaviour can be explained based on the quantification of dislocation density and grain size.</p>