:( I just completed heat treating my first ATS 34 blade and ran into a problem I have not seen before. Up until now, I have only done A2 and it has gone well. I used my Evenheat furace programed to austinize at 1950 for 30 minutes after a short soak at 1400. When I removed the package from the quench plates and cut off the foil, it was seriously stuck to the blade. Removing it resulted in bends that I was not able to totally remove before it was too late. I know the oven temperature is correct because I checked it with my pyrometer and it was within a couple of degrees. The blade was clean and so was the foil. Any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated.
Randy

Robber: sometimes, at higher temps, the foil sticks. This is not a big issue, although I am sorry you ruined your blade. First, leave your blade in the foil pack until it is easily handled with bare hands. When the blade is too warm, it is very soft and easily bent or ruined. As you cut the packet to remove the blade, if the foil sticks, just leave it on until the blade is barely warm. Usually, you can strip it off, occasionally you may need to grind a bit of it off. Also, if you sprinkle talcum powder on your blade before it goes into the foil pack, the sticking will be eliminated.

You can leave the foil pack on right thru the tempering process, if you like. I don't like cryo treating in the pack, however.

Robber: You should leave the blade in the pack until it is cool enough to handle with bare hands. If the foil sticks, don't worry. let it cool a bit further and you can usually peel it off. Sometimes, you have to grind off a bit of foil. Trying to remove hot blades from the foil pack is inviting disaster. Until the blades get below 150 F, the newly formed Martensite is extremely soft and easily distorted.
Sprinkle talcum powder (pure, unscented) onto your blade before you put it in the pack and it won't stick, ever.

Would leaving it in the foil ruin the quenching process??? Seems like it would act like an insulator and not let it quench fast enough.

RJ,
Your advice is very good. Attempting to remove it too soon was definitely not the right thing to do. I was a bit concerned about warping because I had some thin sections but, on second thought, it really looked ok with the little bit of excess stock I had left to enable cleaning it up. It kind of caught me by surprise, so I did not take the time to think it through. I was able to remove the foil with some convincing from an exacto knife. I will try the powder next time. I have also ordered some higher temperature rated Ticronic foil which may also help. Thanks for your guidance. I really want to do more with stainless so I need to get this right. After cryo (dry ice) and tempering, hardness looks good at 60, so I think the rest of the formula is sound. On to S30V.
Randy

Hogcat, for air hardening steels ,some blade makers use quenching plates. The steel,still in the foil ,is quenched by clamping between two plates of aluminum about 1" thick.

I did the exact same thing today! foil really stuck,so i had to really tug to get it off..,i put a slight bend in a small folder blade.about .005..,is there any way to get this out without grinding it thinner?i'll remove it from second temper in just a few minutes!

Well,she's good and wrecked now! what a bummer..,40 hours + work and instantly ruined.hope im not the only one to do this.

If you have an Ox/Acetelene set up, use the Acetelene to soot the blade. This will provide a carbon source to iliminate any O2 left and also prevent the foil from sticking

Chuck

I agree with Chuck. If you don't have an oxy/acet torch try putting a pinch of wood sawdust in the pouch. It will do the same thing.


Gary

Thanks guys! i'll try the sawdust idea.

Sorry to disagree here. Did you try the talcum powder? That has never failed me.
If you want to put carbon residue on your blade, you could hold it over a burning candle flame. I do not recommend sawdust-You can turn your pouch into a little baloon that way.

Thanks RJ..,i'm not going to heatreat again until i get some quench plates.save alot of heartache that way! i'll try the candle idea to!