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Ed Caffrey's Workshop Talk to Ed Caffrey ... The Montana Bladesmith! Tips, tricks and more from an ABS Mastersmith.

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Old 08-07-2013, 03:45 PM
dvieaux dvieaux is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
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Tempering an edge hardened blade

First I must say "hang in there Ed"! Glad they found the cancer/pre-cancer so soon!

My question is about the colors that show up on an edge hardened blade during tempering. First of all, I've only just started to edge quench blades. I do this with a torch by heating only the edge and then quench in oil. However, after I take it out of the oven, I see the the quenched edge is a distinctly different color. A softer color than the rest of the blade. I am using both 1084 and 5160.

Any discussion on this topic would be greatly appreciated! And I apologize if it has already been discussed--I just couldn't find it.

Thanx!
Don
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Old 08-07-2013, 04:29 PM
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Ed Caffrey Ed Caffrey is offline
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Hi Don!

There are a number of factors that will impact how the color(s) appear. There will always be at least a slight appearance difference between tempered steel that has been hardened, and tempered steel that has not been hardened.
The colors should be withing the same "phase"....meaning that both hardened and non-hardened areas will be "straw color" but they may be different shades (ie: light and dark straw). The color will also be different depending on if the blade was "cleaned" (sanded to bright) between hardening and tempering.
And finally, if you temper more then once (personally I temper 3X), each time the color with "change" due to an accumulation of the oxides from tempering.....making the color appear "darker" withing the tempering range of colors.
I'll use 1084 for an example. After the 1st temper (I temper 1084 at 415F) it will be a medium "straw" color (I do not grind/sand between hardening and tempering) with an obvious difference between the hard and soft portions of the blade. On temper #2, it will come out a dark straw, with tinges of deep purple, and on the 3rd cycle, it comes out a mix of purple and vermillion (purplish red).

Don't rely on colors as much as testing....by that I mean that your eyes can be deceived.....devise tests for the characteristics you want in your blades, and keep testing until you figure out the correct combination of tempering, grind, geometry, etc that achieves your desired results.


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