ht time

[Omega]

about how long would o1 have to stay in the forge (propane) before it turns nonmagnetic?

Thx

Bill


Sweeet:evil

[Geno]

Well Bill,
We might need to plug in some info into this question.
The forge type and temp, is the first variable. It could be 2-20 minutes or longer depending on the equipment used.
How thick is the blade, how long and tall?

Most carbon steels heat treat in the orange color range.
Color is our temperature meters.
You can use a magnet until you get familiar with the proper colors for the steel you use.Practice is the key.

You don't want to heat the blades too quickly because you wind up hardening the skin only. The heat has to penetrate to the middle to get full effects from the cooking / quenching process.
Blisters on the surface of the steel, patches of inconsistant etching, or hard spots is a common sign of heating too fast.

Do not quench if there is still a shadow inside the blade. It needs to be one good solid color.
The magnet can fall off before the center is ready on thick blades.

I run a fairly cool forge to H/T with. I "want" the blade to take about 8 minutes for an 1/8" blade, or 10 minutes for a 3/16" blade, 12 for 1/4", and so on.
My forge can do it in a couple of minutes, but consistancy comes with a formula. These temps and times work for me, but I specialize in cable damascus, not o-1.

If you cook it too hot, or too long you can expect grain growth, heavy scale build up,and a difficult clean up after cooking.
A swelling of weld grains in damascus is also a sign.Some swelling is expected, too much can rupture a weld in the quench.
Please, NO loud pops in the quench bucket!

To answer your question, it depends on the equipment used, and the size of your blade.