Aeb-l heat treat mistake

I did not talk to AKS I am looking at the ht info for different steels and aeb-l is the only one I have found that lists the aust temp as 1920 then in the decription says 1940 I assumed it is a mistake or typo?
 
RA increases with higher aust temp. I recommend try just 1 blade at 1975F (put blade into oven; wait to temp return to 1975, then hold for 10 minutes soak). Plate or oil quench should be fine either way. Subzero after quench; 5 minutes temper 250F; check hardness. If you end up with a soft blade (after remove any trace of decarb), could mean your oven TC is off.

AJ Morocco said:
I did air quench to room temp then into alcohol dry ice for 1 hour. Sounds now like my temp was low compared to bluntcut's sucessful ht. Maybe oil quench is better? I have a piece left, so i will try with oil quench and a higher temp for 10 min soak.
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We do a eq at 1550° for 5 minutes then ramp to 1975° hold for 5 minutes and plate quench..Then into a -106° dry ice slurry..They come out hard as a wood peckers lips..temper to about 61rc..The plate quench is pretty important..
 
I'm assuming you are wrapping these blades in foil during HT? I would recommend the plate quench. I then put them in LN, but I think a dry ice bath is also ok for AEB-L. I've never tried oil quench on something that requires foil. Can someone make a comment on how that works with a natural atmosphere oven.
 
You are foil wrapping them right?
I always do the short soak at 1550 also.
 
J. Hoffman said:
I'm assuming you are wrapping these blades in foil during HT? I would recommend the plate quench. I then put them in LN, but I think a dry ice bath is also ok for AEB-L. I've never tried oil quench on something that requires foil. Can someone make a comment on how that works with a natural atmosphere oven.
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It's been said that quick cooling is good with AEB.
I tend to either dunk the whole pouch or simply take some utility shears and cut the bottom and top of the pouch an dunk into oil point down. When it doesn't smoke anymore, I cut open the pouch and check straightness. Blacksmithing made me very comfortable with straightening on an anvil using brass hammer or mallet, so that's what works for me.
Results are good and consistent either way.
 
I am heat treating stainless steel only, I should invest in some aluminum plates. I think 1975 with a 5 min soak is the temp to try next. I have one knife left in Aeb-l plus the one that came out good. I will post the results with pics if I am allowed. Right now I dont have permission to post any pics on this form. Thank you all for all the great advice I really appreciate it and I really enjoy seeing the increadable work that you guys are doing!
 
Someone on another thread said that some if not all of the AEB-L we get comes in a very spheoridized condition.
 
For what it's worth, I just did 5 knives in AEB-l for the first time and they came out perfect. This is what I did. I put the foil wrapped blades in the room temp oven and set it to 1560. Once it stabilized there, I set it to 1920. Once at 1920, I ramped up (100% output) to 1940, then held it there for 15 mins. I only have one set of aluminum plates, so I decided to just air quench them. I pulled all of the blades out and set them up in front of a box fan. Once they had cooled to black, or at least I couldn't see them glowing anymore, I cut them out of the foil and checked for straightness. I had a slight bend in a chef's knife and a skinning knife, but keep in mind all of these blades were finish ground before heat treat. As soon as the blades were room temp, I placed them into a bath of dry ice and acetone. I had something to do that night, so I left them there until I finished, which ended up being about 6 hours. The acetone was back to room temperature by this time....... But I took a few of the blades, checked hardness, and I got right at 63.5-64. Then I put them in the tempering oven.

-Adam
 
After 6h and acetone in room temp, that temper probably was pointless.
Martenzite was already setted.
 
After a dry ice bath always do a temper cycle. Always.


Pablo
 
Kosa_PL said:
After 6h and acetone in room temp, that temper probably was pointless.
Martenzite was already setted.
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No, this is incorrect. The temper is not pointless, it's necessary. Martensite does not "settle".

Dry ice is nothing to do with a temper, it is simply completing the quench. You have to temper after the quench.
 
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