26C3 Carbon Steel - Spicy White

[Justin Schmidt]

Ok, that’s different.

Thin knives with a hamon make aeb-l seem stable in comparison. Unless the clay was identical on both sides, you will get warp.

What do you use to take out the warp during tempering?

 

[Willie71]

What do you use to take out the warp during tempering?

I put shims (usually quarters) under the warp and use two c-clamps to bend it past straight, then do a 2h temper. Only after 1st temper!

 

[Justin Schmidt]

Ok I'll give that a shot! I tried a 1/16 ss pin last time

 

[Willie71]

Ok I'll give that a shot! I tried a 1/16 ss pin last time

I often stack four or five quarters, especially with thin z-wear, or s35vn. They need a lot of overclamping to correct. I think I used three correcting the spicy white.

 

[jdm61]

Don’t forget that these are Canadian quarters so they will only straighten like 80% as much.....

I often stack four or five quarters, especially with thin z-wear, or s35vn. They need a lot of overclamping to correct. I think I used three correcting the spicy white.

 

[Justin Schmidt]

Don’t forget that these are Canadian quarters so they will only straighten like 80% as much.....

So a few dimes then eh?

 

[comet_sharp]

I’m wondering if a stress relief cycle would help against warp. I had another blade, out of the .150 group start to warp during thermal cycle. I bent it back easily and when quenched it came out straight.

I forged all mine.
20 mins at 1560 air cool
20 mins at 1460 air cool
Held at 1460 for half hour and cooked to 1250 over 2 hours (about 100°/hr)
I quenched from 1475 into parks and had very little distortion. Got all 5 blades tempered straight. Went to bend one after a 380°F temper and it clean snapped at about 15° degrees.
-Trey

 

[comet_sharp]

Ground to zero, 380 temper. There is my grain and edge damage after a lot of abuse.
-Trey

 

[comet_sharp]

Also noticepeople in here getting same hardness with different tempers. It seems very annealed, when pregrinding a stock removal knife I had to constantly keep tapping it straight. If stock removing I suggest a bit longer soak, bring to temp then give 10 minutes, takes around 15 or so in my furnance based in thickness.
Also my blade posted above was forged from .15" stock down to an average of .09" along the spine. After DET anneal it quenched straight and etching revealed very little carbide segregation, if normalized and quenched from pearlite though it has enough carbide segregation to trick you into thinking its damascus.
-Trey

 

[Storm W]

I am wondering about the whole hamon thing on kitchen knives. I just used Hoss' advice and did a damascus blade totally with Gator and cork belts, no hadn't sanding required. It made me happy. I HATE hand sanding. I an thinking about doing forced patina finishes on my monosteel blades.

Have you tried those 3M micro film belts from pops? They work wet. I just use a squirt bottle with soapy water. They cut hard steel way better than AO. I have taken a 9" chef to 1k in 20 minutes. I think that they would work good with cork. Maybe give up to 800 then switch.

 

[John mc c]

I had a lot of warping with my forged silver steel which is to white 2 as this spicy white is to white 1
All fixed after following Kevin cashens post forging routine
After forging 1600 to cool
1475 to cool
1475 and quench
1275 for 2 hours
Fully annealed for grinding and it's ready to quench straight after with no warps

 

[samuraistuart]

I got a warp as well, right after profiling the blank (0.078"), which was odd but it happens sometimes. Straightened it out the best I could. But during the heat treatment I went from Parks 50 into plates, and it came out straight. I'll have to shoot for a differential hardening on the next one. You guys have some good looking hamons.

 

[Justin Schmidt]

I got a warp as well, right after profiling the blank (0.078"), which was odd but it happens sometimes. Straightened it out the best I could. But during the heat treatment I went from Parks 50 into plates, and it came out straight. I'll have to shoot for a differential hardening on the next one. You guys have some good looking hamons.

How's this stuff compare to w2 for you?

 

[Jerry Wang]

I use .150 26C3 heat treatment my knife about 1475f,and temper 400F,get HRC63,but when I grinding the kinfe tail,suddenly it fracture at the shoulder,I am dumbfounded.....very determine the knife not hit or fall,maybe when heat treatment the steel have invisible crack.....
I am very upset,so not take photo.
What HRC is better about this steel?everyone.

 

[Tom Lewis]

I have made several kitchen knives with a Rockwell hardness of 64. I tempered at 400 degrees for two hours twice.
They have held up very well.
It sounds like your blade got a crack during heat treating.

 

[samuraistuart]

Justin, I'm just now getting around to hand sanding the blade. And I didn't do a hamon on this first piece, but plan to on the next go around. I did get banding, but as already mentioned it is very light. As far as performance goes between 26C3 and W2, I would expect them to behave very similarly. 26C3 will have the edge in wear resistance with it's higher carbide %, but it's just cementite carbide (slightly harder than as-quenched steel). As far as hamon formation, looks like it does quite well judging the photos posted in this thread, especially Kuraki's.

 

[dburgess1231]

We just received our first shipment of Voestalpine 26C3 carbon steel.

We will have more thicknesses listed soon. Let me know if you have any questions.

Do you know when you will have something close to the 0.100 thickness?

 

[Ray86]

Is that banding i see?

Hey mike. Any knives for sale?

 

[shqxk]

26C3 Doing pretty well as far as hamon goes... The edge holding and sharpness are also excellent. I always do some grain refinement process prior HT tho.

 

[Skiller1nc]

26C3 Doing pretty well as far as hamon goes... The edge holding and sharpness are also excellent. I always do some grain refinement process prior HT tho.

Very impressive, are you willing to share your heat treat process?