Annealing files

[Txcwboy]

I have 4 big farrier rasp I bought to make knives out of. They are too big for my forge. Can I build a charcoal fire in my fire pit put them in it put some more ontop of them and light it. Make sure it gets going well and then leave them in till the next day when its dead ?

THANKS !

Dave

[cdent]

Before you let the fire burn out, I'd lift the file out and check if it got to nonmagnetic if you'd like to anneal it. If your forge has a back opening, you can pass the file back and forth through the hot spot until you get an even heat over the entire area that you want to heat. If you're going to forge the file, I'd consider just normalizing it instead of the overnight thing and start forging.

Good luck with it, Craig

[son_of_bluegras]

If you are using real charcoal (lump, hardwood, natural) not briquettes I think it should work. Checking for nonmagnetic will tell you for sure.

ron

[Txcwboy]

so a wood fire not a brickett fire and make sure it gets non magnetic for a bit before letting it cool. Gotcha !

Thanks

Dave

[SBuzek]

Build a nice size fire and insert the files in the middle ,get the wifes hair dryer and force some air into the fire to get to nonmagnetic,and then let it burnout and cool on it own.
Stan

[WBE]

You might want to try a spheroidizing anneal first. The steel in that rasp should be a hypereutectoid. Most hypereutectoid steels do better if they are spheroidized annealed. In a common anneal you end up with the carbon forming layers that are still tough on drill bits or other cutting tools. In the spheroidized anneal, the carbon forms into balls and allows much easier working. To do this, you would bring the heat to well under non-magnetic, somewhere around 1300?, then a relatively quick air cool to ambient temp, and repeat 3 or 4 times. Mete' could explain it much better, but if properly done, the steel is much softer than a common anneal. A good example of the results of this is PG 01 steel. It comes as spheroidized annealled, and you can cut slivers from it with a sharp knife.

[Txcwboy]

I did them in a bbq smoker in the wood box side. YES it got a lil hot ! hahahaha But they all seem to get to non magnetic. I did notice they seemed to warp a tiny bit, I guess from not sitting on something flat ? How would you correct this ?

THANKS

Dave

[WBE]

It is officially against the rules, but I used to just hammer them straight. They will probably warp again when you quench. In that case, take them out of quench when they are still unconfortable with bare hands, and straighten with hand pressure holding with gloves, or a rag. You have about a five minute window for this. After that, they could break.