I, over time and also most recently, have gotten email asking about PBC. I use PBC exclusively on high carbon, or sometimes called simple steels. I love the stuff. I don't like the price because I use so much of it for my larger knives - but I love the stuff for what it does and it does it very well.
What I have learned so far, except the fact that it does what it says it will do, is that just preheating the steel to 500 F. and coating IS NOT ENOUGH. I have learned that the steel should be heated to at least that temperature and allowed to rest in the furnace (oven) at that temperature for a long enough period to get the core of the steel to the same desired temperature. Not doing so permits the steel to cool too quickly before getting the PBC powder melted properly upon the steel surface. What I have learned to do with my outfit (a Even Heat) is heat at about 530 F for 15 minutes, take out and coat (I sprinkle instead of dipping into or laying upon the PBC), I then place back into the oven and redo the same heat (530 F) for 15 minutes and sprinkle again so as to take care of any spots that may have been missed the first time. In this way VERY SELDOM do I end up with any decarburation that might cause me difficulty.
I HAVE ONE BIG WARNING for those of us that do both simple and complex steels within the same furnace. Do not allow your heat treating foil to contact any PBC residue left behind in your furnace (oven) while heat treating complex steels. The high temperatures required to heat treat your complex steels will allow the PBC residue to eat through your foil wrap and allow decarburation to occur into your hard work. When using PBC I always place a sheet of foil wrap on my brick that I place the blade upon and also a larger piece upon the floor of my Even Heat. If this stuff gets on your bricks, and it wants too do that, its in there for good. Getting it out means chippng the brick surface away. Using the foil wrap within your oven for simple steel heat treating WILL NOT damage the foil wrap you use for protecting your oven. Those tempertures are within tolerance. It is the high temperatures that seem to activate the nastiness.
Besides relative ease of application Brownell's PBC is unlike the paint on protectives in that no wire grinding wheel is needed to remove it after quench or temper. I can not tell you how many times I have forgotten to turn on my tempering oven to have ready just when needed. I have actually repeated heat treats because I had to let steel fall below hand warm before tempering was ready. Stupid but stupid happens sometimes. With PBC just let it cool to no less than hand warm and place in your boiling water. Boiling water is what is recommended to remove its residue from the steel after quench and you can hold it there until tomorrow if it takes that long for your tempering oven to stabilize at your desired temperature. Take it out, wipe it off, let cool to hand warm and place in tempering. No problem.
As with about all things we do in knife making, wear breathing protection when working with this dust. It has some nasty stuff in it but great stuff to perform what it is ment for.
Credit: Bruce Bump, a most favorite maker to me, has given me some nice tips over the very few years of my experience in knife making and one of my most valuable is his tip to me to try PBC.
rlinger
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What I have learned so far, except the fact that it does what it says it will do, is that just preheating the steel to 500 F. and coating IS NOT ENOUGH. I have learned that the steel should be heated to at least that temperature and allowed to rest in the furnace (oven) at that temperature for a long enough period to get the core of the steel to the same desired temperature. Not doing so permits the steel to cool too quickly before getting the PBC powder melted properly upon the steel surface. What I have learned to do with my outfit (a Even Heat) is heat at about 530 F for 15 minutes, take out and coat (I sprinkle instead of dipping into or laying upon the PBC), I then place back into the oven and redo the same heat (530 F) for 15 minutes and sprinkle again so as to take care of any spots that may have been missed the first time. In this way VERY SELDOM do I end up with any decarburation that might cause me difficulty.
I HAVE ONE BIG WARNING for those of us that do both simple and complex steels within the same furnace. Do not allow your heat treating foil to contact any PBC residue left behind in your furnace (oven) while heat treating complex steels. The high temperatures required to heat treat your complex steels will allow the PBC residue to eat through your foil wrap and allow decarburation to occur into your hard work. When using PBC I always place a sheet of foil wrap on my brick that I place the blade upon and also a larger piece upon the floor of my Even Heat. If this stuff gets on your bricks, and it wants too do that, its in there for good. Getting it out means chippng the brick surface away. Using the foil wrap within your oven for simple steel heat treating WILL NOT damage the foil wrap you use for protecting your oven. Those tempertures are within tolerance. It is the high temperatures that seem to activate the nastiness.
Besides relative ease of application Brownell's PBC is unlike the paint on protectives in that no wire grinding wheel is needed to remove it after quench or temper. I can not tell you how many times I have forgotten to turn on my tempering oven to have ready just when needed. I have actually repeated heat treats because I had to let steel fall below hand warm before tempering was ready. Stupid but stupid happens sometimes. With PBC just let it cool to no less than hand warm and place in your boiling water. Boiling water is what is recommended to remove its residue from the steel after quench and you can hold it there until tomorrow if it takes that long for your tempering oven to stabilize at your desired temperature. Take it out, wipe it off, let cool to hand warm and place in tempering. No problem.
As with about all things we do in knife making, wear breathing protection when working with this dust. It has some nasty stuff in it but great stuff to perform what it is ment for.
Credit: Bruce Bump, a most favorite maker to me, has given me some nice tips over the very few years of my experience in knife making and one of my most valuable is his tip to me to try PBC.
rlinger
------
did I misunderstand you or you I?