1070/316 Damascus HT Question

[Rick Marchand]

1070/316 Damascus that my friend Rob Thomas gave me... beautiful pattern...

I am heat treating it like I would 1070..... 1500F for a 5min soak and quench in HQ-K. It turned out very soft. So I bumped it to 1525F, 5min, HQ-K and it still seemed rather soft. Finally, 1550F and it feels hard enough to consider it HT'd. Is this the nature of the particular mix I chose? I understand the 316 won't harden at those temperatures. Why wouldn't it harden at the initial temps?

Rick

 

[D.Mirabile]

Rick- 316 is an austenitic stainless. It will not harden at any temp. I use it on some of my san-mai blades. The blades of mine that you saw in Vegas were 316 / 1080.... well, except for the A203E / 1080 san-mai that i had there. I've thought about making that mix in damascus for fittings. you got a pic?

 

[stevomiller]

Rick, I have zero first or second hand knowledge of this but could it have to do with thermal conductivity? Thermal conductivity of the two materials is very different: carbon steel being over 3x higher than the stainless. Perhaps the stainless is slowing down the soak or the quenching just enough to give you trouble? Dunno, my back is whacked & its 3 am ;-)

 

[Rick Marchand]

Rick- 316 is an austenitic stainless. It will not harden at any temp. I use it on some of my san-mai blades. The blades of mine that you saw in Vegas were 316 / 1080.... well, except for the A203E / 1080 san-mai that i had there. I've thought about making that mix in damascus for fittings. you got a pic?

David.... I absolutely loved your blades, brother. Infact, when I got home from Vegas I made my first bar of San Mai, directly inspired by your work.... Now, I have to find the time to make a knife out of it.(1084/Mild)

No pics, yet.

This has me questioning damascus now. It is a very uneducated bias but I feel more confident in San Mai, simply because is has an edge of unbroken monosteel. I suppose that is dependant on what steels are used in damascus...... anyway.... I'm talking beyond my experience level so I'll end it there.


Stevo....
That makes sense, too. I don't know if raising the austenizing temp did anything other than grow the grain a bit but it definately got harder at the 1550F quench.




Rick