157 cm heat treat, did I do alright?

[Robert_Phelps]

I tried out my kiln, and stainless steel for the first time last night.. Heated to 1400 (This is from crucible's data), held for 15 minutes, ramped to 1900, held for an hour, plate quenched in the foil with clamps, then tempered twice 2 hours each at 400... It chopped through a 2x4 and still popped hair off my leg (No arm hair anymore these days). Does it sound like I did it right? I never could find anything where someone said "I plate quenched 157 cm and it worked fine," but went ahead with it because I don't have an oil quench tank right now.

 

[mete]

Plate quench is the way to go with 154CM !! You could drop the time for hardening for a blade to 30-45 min. Otherwise you're set to go .Don't cut yourself !

 

[Robert_Phelps]

Cool :thumbup: ..Too late with the cutting myself though. Also with burning myself.


Another question while I'm at it... I guess most of you guys with kilns still use a toaster oven/oven to temper with? My blade was sitting there stone cold (Also known as penguin hand-warm) waiting for my kiln to cool down (I didn't know it took so long to go from 1900 to 400!), until I gave up on waiting and took the knife back up to the house to use the oven..