1095 fire striker temper

L

LRB

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Feb 28, 2006
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How much, if any, would a temper of 300°, or 325°, affect the hardness of 1095 that was water quenched from 1500°? Would a low temper heat as that make it at least slightly less brittle? This piece is 1/4" x 3/8" x 3"
 
The only thing I noticed making strikers with 1095 is that you get many more sparks if you leave the steel as hard as possible....untempered. You could try putting one in the oven for an hour and see how it still sparks from there though.
 
Yeah, that's been my experience also, but I broke one today that had nice decorative file work on it, and was curious about a very slight temper to possibly help a little without sacrificing spark. I was making a larger version of this.

pennyknife727_640x480.jpg
 
I take it that you are speaking of traditional flint and steel here?

I have experimeted quite a bit with this and can get sparks from steel as low as mid 40's HRC. I have spring tempered 1095 (blue) and was able to spark with it. It wasn't easy but it worked, consistantly. You have more play with strikers and temper than you think.

Fully hardened 1095 would throw great sparks, no doubt.... but you still need it to be tough. A lot of folks use their striker to knap the flint back to sharp and I've seen more than a few break in the process. Not good.

Tempering back to straw would not affect it at all. Taking for granted that it reached full hard at the quench.

Rick
 
I would think that you would at least want to temper enough to convert tetragonal martensite into cubic martensite, I believe it is both tougher and harder. I think that boiling it (212) for a day will do it, but I'd probably just soak it a while at 325-350. Don't let it go over 400 if you want it extremely hard.
 
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