The goal of this study is to test different pre- and post-heating conditions to mitigate the hydrogen-induced cracking risk in X3 CrNiMo 13-4 stainless steel using an optimized welding procedure. Implant tests were performed to evaluate the cold cracking sensitivity of each welding condition. Temperature measurements were done while welding, and the test shows that the preheating temperature has no measurable effect on the cooling rate in this configuration. Post-heating temperature should be kept high enough to have enough austenite to avoid cracking while degassing the hydrogen. The study shows that its duration could be reduced to 30 min instead of 1 h. In the end, this study shows that the loading temperature of the implant should be compared to the \(M_s\) – \(M_f\) range instead of being set according to the pre-heating temperature (as stated by the ISO norm) in order to avoid fracture deviation in weld metal and false-negative results in low Ms martensitic steels.