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Any one looked at the 13C26 data sheet lately. 13C26 is the same as AEB-L but made by sandvik not uddeholm. The general word on the street is 15min soak at 1940°. But thy say 3min at 1940°

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Those are required times for a "belt furnace" where the required time is highly sensitive; more time requires slowing down the furnace. You can visualize these by thinking of an oven in a sandwich or pizza shop where they stick it in one side and it moves through until it is "cooked" on the other. As it states there, it is 3 min for a 1.0mm thickness. However, this page lists different times based on thickness: http://smt.sandvik.com/en/products/...ening-programs/sandvik-13c26-piece-hardening/
In a "batch" furnace, which is more typically what a knifemaker would use, Sandvik recommends 30 minutes: http://smt.sandvik.com/en/products/...ening-programs/sandvik-13c26-batch-hardening/ In this case they are recommending a relatively long time to ensure the piece is sufficiently heated through and has time for dissolution of carbides, etc. The time is likely longer than necessary but grain growth is minimal as long as the austenitizing temperature is correctly chosen (not too high). Notice the recommended temperatures in the hardening guide for a belt furnace are higher than for batch hardening, likely to compensate for these differences in holding time.
If you email Sandvik and they same the same thing I did, will I still be wrong?I don't think that's correct. I think thy have 2 different times because in a batch there are a bunch of blades together and the time for the oven to come back up to temp is longer. Where a belt does not have a large mass to heat all at once. Also thy only have one data sheet for it. And it says 1940deg with a hold of 3 min. Yes that's 1mm thick, but its still saying that 13c26 does not need much of any soak time by default. Other steels are X min plus X per inch of thickness. This does not say that, it basically says as the steel gets thicker the time goes up. That accounts for the time it takes for the thicker stock to come up to temp. I would waiger a bet that at least in my situation I'm more like a belt furnace. My oven has soaked for 1hr and is nice and even. I open the door quickly and insert the bade. The temp drops but comes back about 2min later. i set the blades right next to the thermal probe. it seams like the temp drop is due to the blade not the exchange of air. If I open the door and close it without a blade the temp pops right back up. The higher temps seem to be for the steel that get the cold treatment. The non cold treated steel are very close from batch to belt.
Thanks, I was just confused by what I was seeing.
That looks like thy are grouping us into the belt category.