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Heat Treating and Metallurgy Discussion of heat treatment and metallurgy in knife making.

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  #1  
Old 06-04-2015, 06:05 PM
Wyme84 Wyme84 is offline
 
Join Date: Apr 2015
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Did I do it right? (heat treating 1080)

Hi,
After reading lots of threads, I just heat treated for the first time, and this is what I did.

1. Using a home-made propane furnace I heated up the knife until it was no longer magnetic -- tested it on a 100lb magnet. Then I put it back in the fire for a minute to bring the temp back up. The knife didn't look red, just a little pink, but it was pretty bright out, so I am assuming I just couldn't see it.

2. I quenched in peanut oil that was warmed up to about 130 degrees. No flare up, just a little bubbling. I moved it around a little, and let it cool off some more.

3. Took it out of the oil, wiped off some of the scale. Then tried running a file over the spine to check for hardness -- it didn't feel much different than another piece of scrap 1080.

The whole thing was pretty easy, straight forward, and uneventful -- and I feel like I must have done something wrong?

How does it sound to you?

BTW - it is now tempering in the oven at 450 for 2 hours x2.
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  #2  
Old 06-04-2015, 06:30 PM
jmccustomknives jmccustomknives is offline
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Sounds like you have it down. The only thing, that file should skate right over and not cut at all.
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  #3  
Old 06-04-2015, 06:38 PM
Wyme84 Wyme84 is offline
 
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I couldn't tell if it was cutting, but I didn't press very hard...

Its already tempered, is there a way to check now? Should I re-heat treat?

Last edited by Wyme84; 06-04-2015 at 07:50 PM.
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  #4  
Old 06-04-2015, 10:03 PM
Doug Lester Doug Lester is offline
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One thing. Before testing with a file you need to let the steel cool to ambient temperature or you may not have full conversion of austinite to untempered martensite. If you are going to do your heat treatment by color then I would also recommend that you do it by subdued light, like after dark

Doug


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  #5  
Old 06-05-2015, 10:19 AM
samuraistuart samuraistuart is offline
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Another thing to remember is decarb. This is a very thin layer of steel that has had it's carbon robbed from it. This will make you think the steel did not harden properly. Usually the file will bite in at first, but keep doing a few filing strokes on that edge until you hit hard steel.
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Old 06-09-2015, 07:33 PM
Wyme84 Wyme84 is offline
 
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follow up
--> I tried banging the spine of the knife against the bottom (handle area) of a file, and it looks like the file is indented..... so I think Ill assume the knife is hardened
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Old 06-12-2015, 10:43 AM
TJ Smith TJ Smith is offline
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I usually check the edge for hardness not the spine.
Take Care
TJ Smith


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Old 06-12-2015, 02:08 PM
Doug Lester Doug Lester is offline
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To expand on what TJ said. Try testing the edge by trying to drive it through some baling wire or a thin brass pin stock, about 1/32" would be good. Strike the spine of the blade with something like a wood mallet. Hopefully you will have no more that a slight flattening of the edge. If the edge chips thin you will have to grind that out and re-temper at 25? higher temperature until it comes out right. With you tempering at 450? already I doubt that it will happen. If the edge looks like it folded over as it indented then the blade is too soft. With that you will have to repeat the heat treatment after grinding the edge smooth. I would recommend that you drop the tempering temperature to 400? and working your way back up if necessary.

Doug


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Old 09-11-2015, 11:15 AM
BattleBorn BattleBorn is offline
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I agree with testing the edge with a file instead of the spine. I heat treat in a paint can forge and I have done this from the beginning. I recently got a set of hardness files and now I can verify that this simple method has been effective. The only difference is that I quench in mineral oil. On 1080 and 1084 I can get the 55 Rockwell file to skate and the 60 Rockwell file to barely scratch before tempering. On 1095 the 60 Rockwell file will just barely mark the surface pre temper. This method is very effective if you turn the lights down and really pay attention.
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back, blade, brass, carbon, conversion, degrees, easy, edge, file, fire, first time, forge, handle, harden, heat, heat treatment, home, knife, made, make, press, quenched, scale, steel


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