AL, Damscus Ht

[J-siah]

I have a question that I hope can be answered quickly. I know that a lot of people ask Ht questions around here but please suffer on more. I recently bought some Alabama Damascus, their redneck pattern, (4) layers 5160, (3) layers 203E, (3) layers 52100, (3) layers 15N20 folded 5 times for 416 damascus layers. It came with Ht instructions, but they were somewhat off I think. They said to heat to critical then quench in ATF, then to temper for 1hr at 375' once. The temper really threw me, so my question is: can I quench in parks #50, and then temper the blade like I would 1095. I know parks 50 is pretty fast but a can't afford to buy a pail AAA right now. I just want to know if parks 50 is to fast for this combination of steel.

I really don't want to ruin this knife, its a Christmas present .

Thanks, -Josiah

 

[Don Hanson III]

P-50 is a little too fast for 5160 and 52100 but you should be OK with this mix.

 

[RMLamey]

If your nervous about the temper cycle, and especially if its a bigger blade (chopper, camp, Bowie etc.), Simply bump it up to 400 @ 1hr, and up it from there if you see fit after testing. I use different temper cycles for different blade requirements all the time.