Heat Treating and Metallurgy Discussion of heat treatment and metallurgy in knife making. |
03-19-2014, 11:02 AM
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Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 2
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Heat treating 5160
How can I reduce the scale on my blade after I quench it? Is it possible to wrap the blade before heat treat and still achieve desired hardness?
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03-19-2014, 11:22 AM
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Steel Addict
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Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: San Antonio Texas
Posts: 163
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No, you can't wrap an oil hardening steel in foil and quench it. You would have to take the foil off first before the quench......which, of course, you'll lose all your heat in the time it takes. There are products, try Brownells.com, for anti-scale coatings. Also, satanite or rutlands, which is used to create a hamon, can be applied as a thin wash over the entire blade to help control scale and decarb.
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03-19-2014, 12:49 PM
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Hall of Famer
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Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Decatur, IL
Posts: 2,612
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Most of the scale comes off my blades when I scrub them in hot soapy water. If not, you can just pickle them in white vinegar overnight.
Doug
__________________
If you're not making mistakes then you're not trying hard enough
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03-19-2014, 06:40 PM
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Skilled
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 352
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SpecialK...I have made many knives from 5160 without excessive scale being a problem. If you are having this problem, it suggests to me that (1) you could be heating your blade hotter than what is necessary and thereby forming excessive scale, and (2) the time lapse from when you remove the blade from the heat until you get it into the quench is perhaps too long which could allow the blade to cool off too much. In my experience with 5160, I can see where the surface of the blade is scaled somewhat when it comes out of the fire, but upon quenching it quickly, the scale explodes off the blade upon contact with the quench. There may be some small deposits of scale, but nothing very major.
I have also used white vinegar in removing scale. It softens the scale to the point where grinding it off the blade is not a problem. sometimes it is possible to simply wipe it off, or wire brush it off.
It is very important to get the blade immersed in the quench ASAP after removing it from the fire...preferably one or two seconds.
Without going into a lot of detail, you might want to take a good look at wet forging. This is a technique that can help in removing scale from your blade during your forging phase of your process. It could help in reducing the amount of scale prior to your quench.
Last edited by Ed Tipton; 03-20-2014 at 03:30 AM.
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04-04-2014, 11:48 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 2
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Thanks to everybody for your information. It has been very helpful.
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Tags
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5160, bee, blade, blades, fire, grinding, hamon, heat, heat treat, hot, knife, knives, made, problem, products, scale, steel, surface, white, wrap |
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