o1 ht

[voppa420]

Can I heat treat o1 using a charcoal grill? Is there anything special I have to do? How come when I try to do a search on this forum for "O1" is comes up with an error. Also, I've heard to quench O1 in tranny fluid. Is this true?

[ragnik]

Voppa,

i will start this by saying I am no expert. However O-1 is on the simple side to heat treat. You just need a way to heat it to critical temp. In other words when you can touch a magnet to it and it doesnt attract the magnet any more.(The color is usualy a bright red but use the magnet that is the sure way to tell.)

Then when it is up to non-magnetic you need to put it in some type of oil. USed motor oil is what i use cause it was easy to get! I am not sure about tranny fluid if that would work or not. I do know used hydrallic fluid work. The other key with the oil is that it needs to be heated to 125-150 degrees before you drop the hot blade in it. then let it cool down in there and take it out clean off the black.

Next to check if it hardened take a file and run it down the blade it should skate right off the steel with out grabbing. If it does that you have a hardened blade. Now you just need to temper it.

Hope that helps.

Take care

Ross

[SKIVIE]

Voppa, You can pretty much quench 0-1 in variety of oils but if your in an enlosed area like me you might want to try Cannolla or vegetable oil....smells better than motor oil or tranny oil. And like Ross said, you can heat it in anything as long as you can get it above critical (non magnetic). 0-1 is very easy to HT so experiment away until you find something that works for you.

Shane

[Chris Daigle]

Yeah, I've heard of using tranny oil. That should work just fine.

I use peanut oil, because like SKIVIE, I'm in an enclosed are (my garage). That way, the neighbors think I'm baking cookies or something.

Don't neglect to temper in an oven after heat treat!

Chris

[Waycasy]

Voppa
As far as your searches are going I understand there is a
minimum of 3 characters for a search. Simply type an asterik (*)
after O1 and you will find all that you want on this subject!
Ask me how I know!

[Rocket_Jason]

I use tranny fluid. It works just fine but smells a little.

[hammerdownnow]

DO NOT USE HYDROLIC FLUID!!!!! IT WILL KILL YOU!!!!!

[ragnik]

Hammer,

My spelling is lousy so i looked it up I meant hydraulic fluid ?? Is that a no no also?? Sorry for any confusion i caused on that. I have read a few places where that is used for quenching and that is why i mentioned it. I sure wont again if it can kill you. Is hydrolic the same thing???

Thanks
Ross

[hammerdownnow]

My bad spelling also. That what I was trying to spell also. I can't remember where I read it, but it was a very heavy warning against useing it. I am away from home right now or I think I could find it on my computer. Maybe someone with specific knowledge will come on and tell us why. Better safe than sorry.

Now i am confusing myself, did a search and seen it mentioned in several threads as ok. Sorry to raise alarm thru my own ignorance. What was that oil, that read was poison?

hey, I did learn if you hit the search button at the bottom of a post it will bring up more threads on the original topic.

[Terry_Dodson]

hammer, i think it was transformer oil if i remember right.

[rlinger]

O1 is a very good knife steel. It tarnishes most easily but so what.

To HT O1 you should control the temp as best as practicable but can pretty easily be done at home on a shoe string; and done well. It is best not to use a grill type HT or a torch but confine the heat around the steel consistantly instead. You can buy refactory brick and simply lay up a housing to HT it or pour a simple forge or make the simple but effective 'one brick forge'.

At any rate - here is a secret to HT'ing O1. O1 likes interrupted quench and knowing when to pull from austenizing and quench is a big factor. Here is how you can HT a O1 blade straight from Hell - turn all lights off and bring QUITE slowly to austenitizing. You must watch the steel and look for shadows (that appear as dark cold spots. They are not cold You are seeing austenitizing take place). These shadows sometimes appear to move about the blade surface and sometimes not but at the least they will change in size and eventually, before long, disappear. At the moment they disappear completely pull the blade within no less than 10 seconds and quench immediately in pre-warmed oil (about 125 to 130 F oil). The quench needs to be done with the blade being moved back and forth as in a cutting motion in the oil, not side ways. Count to about 7 seconds from the time you place the blade in quench and pull from quench. Upon pulling from quench the blade should smoke but not flame. If the oil upon the blade flames you have not quenched long enough; place it back in quench for another second or two only. If the blade does not smoke you have quenched too long. With the quench done properly and complete allow the blade to cool to hand warm (about 140 to 125 F BUT NOT BELOW about 125 F) and place in PRE-HEATED tempering oven. Temper at 400 F for 1 hour. Allow to still air cool to room temp. and temper again at 375 F. for 1 hour. It is best to cryo between tempers if you have the means and if you can cryo it is better to snap temper before cryo than full temper. If cryo'ing I would snap temper at 300 F / 45 min. to no greater than 1 hour. After still air cooling to room temp. place in cryo immediately.

All above except cryo and snap temper talk was passed on to me by Tim Zowada and I pass it on to you. And, it is correct. Try it.

RL

[AwP]

If the oil upon the blade flames you have not quenched long enough; place it back in quench for another second or two only. If the blade does not smoke you have quenched too long.

I know what happens if you don't quench long enough, your blade doesn't get hard. What happens if you quench too long?

[rlinger]

You are doing an interrupted quench. The idea on this one is to quench to about 350 F and then let still air cool to about 125 F before putting in tempering oven.

RL

[back pocket]

After the correct quench is acquired, can the blade be placed in the quench tank to reach the desired 125 deg. cool down temp., or must it be " still air cooling" to no less than 125 deg. be used as a necessary part of the interrupted quench process? thanks!

[Michael Sanchez]

I work for an electrical utility company and checked with our engineers regarding the Transformer Oil. According to them most transformers are now filled with pure mineral oil and they said that the vapor or smoke won't kill you but (like almost everything else we are around) it is not good for you.

Through my experience, if one of our transformers blow or catch on fire it is usually the fire that hurts people, and I have not heard of anyone dieing from the smoke.

Just my 2 cents worth

Mike