AEB-L help

S

slong0928

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May 31, 2012
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Hi all, long story short I need help. A few months ago I purchased some AEB-L from Aldo. I am in the process of making a few knives out of it, and I have several ready for heat treat. When I was looking up how to heat treat it it said something about doing a "cryo dip"(maybe that is not the right word to use) short of sending it out for heat treat (which my wallet would prefer I do not do) how would I go about doing this or would it be detrimental if I skipped that step? I looked through the the heat treat sticky and could not find aeb-l unless it is listed under something else. I have done a bit of heat treating on O1 before this but i wanted to try my hand at different material any advice is greatly appreciated.
Spenser
 
Do you have the ability to heat treat stainless in a temp controlled oven? I have cryo treated AEB-L with a slurry of dry ice and acetone although it does not get as cold as nitrogen.

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the shop i work at has a cress heat treat oven with a digital read out thats programable if that would work, however i cant figure out where to get any dry ice without driving a longer distance, because i have looked into that as well.
 
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Is it necessary? No. It's necessary to get the most out of the steel, but not necessarily to make a good knife.
 
next question I have only been using peanut oil to quench my O1 blades will that work or will i need a special oil?
 
slong0928 said:
the shop i work at has a cress heat treat oven with a digital read out thats programable if that would work, however i cant figure out where to get any dry ice without driving a longer distance, because i have looked into that as well.
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Do you have a GFS (Gordon Food Service) near you? They usually have it. I think one pack was enough when I did mine.

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jwesthurl said:
Do you have a GFS (Gordon Food Service) near you? They usually have it. I think one pack was enough when I did mine.

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yes i do have a GFS near by no one i have talked to has had any idea where to get any so i will look there next time i go past. will i have to talk to someone in the store to get it?
 
slong0928 said:
yes i do have a GFS near by no one i have talked to has had any idea where to get any so i will look there next time i go past. will i have to talk to someone in the store to get it?
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Mine just has it in a cooler when you walk in but if you don't see it I would definitely ask.

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To the OP - Since you mention using Peanut oil, do you have a method to heat to 1950ºF in a controlled environment? If not, then don't worry about Cryo, it won't matter. Best solution by far is to send your AEB-L blades out for heat Treat.

Ken H>
 
In short, you should heat treat your stainless blades in a high temp stainless foil pouch. Throw some talcum powder in the package(baby powder), double crease the edges of the package, then quench between thick aluminum plates (not oil). Remove the blades from the stainless packets, do your sub zero dry ice bath, then temper.

For more details, I'm sure there is a sticky at the top of the shoptalk page.
 
If you need heat treating done we do it. We also do liquid nitrogen cryo and stainless foil. It really does not cost that much to have someone like me heat treat your blade(s). Let me know
 
Guys, his Cress furnace probably makes our knifemaker kilns look backwater and rinkydink. Going to go out on a limb and guess he has proper control of temperature...
 
I also do cryo treated AEB-L with a slurry of dry ice and acetone. Many grocery stores in Fl sell dry ice so it is easy to get. I usually let it sit in the bath (cryo) overnight then to 2 cycles of 150% for 2 hours in an oven.
Jay
 
My apologies Mr Spenser, I totally missed the part about you having access to the Cress furnace until Matthew pointed it out. Does the Cress furnace have a controlled atmosphere ability, such as a vacuum or nitrogen purge? If so, you shouldn't even need the SS foil to wrap blade. While AEB-L is an air hardening alloy, I would suggest getting a couple of aluminum plates to clamp the blades between to prevent warping.

On the cryo or dry ice treatment - yes they make a better blade, but if you don't do anything you'll still be impressed with AEB-L as a blade. It will still make a "good" blade.

Ken H>
 
No vacuum or nitrogen but we use SS wrap, I have never heard of throwing talc powder in the pack, what does it do?
 
Sometimes the blade will stick to the foil making a hassle removing from foil. The talc helps prevent this sticking.
 
Ken H> said:
Sometimes the blade will stick to the foil making a hassle removing from foil. The talc helps prevent this sticking.
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YES. Do this!!! Good advice. Doesn't happen all the time, but holy cow is to not fun to deal with when it does...
 
One of the reasons for confusion about cryo and sub-zero is lack of understanding the differences between the two.
Sub-zero is about -100 F. It reduces the amount of retained austenite.
Cryo is about -300 F , the temperature of liquid nitrogen [ LN ] It further reduces RA but also permits formation of small eta carbides.

For a steel like O-1 I would just use sub-zero. For the more complex super steels like S35VN I would recommend cryo.

I spent a good bit of time yesterday checking technical papers about cryo on Goggle Chrome .
I find the confusion is due to lack of consistant terminology ,Lack of understanding that each steel is different. You need to know what properties you want , what steel to use . Much is yet to be discovered about cryo , let me know if you need clarification.
 
Slong, I know you prefer not to spend any money on professional heat treat but if you would consider the effort you invested in the blade you might want to get a price at least on heat treat and cryo from a professional. I use Paul Farner at Paul Bos Heat Treat in Idaho. He has expensive and tested equipment. He cryos every blade after heat treat. There is Peters heat treat as well. You may just want get the price. Sometimes the cost of professional help is small compared to the value of a knife when finished well. Larry
 
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