ATS-34

I agree with Nick
he is the best there is
and after putting time into
a blade,you don't want to mess
up your knife,just not worth taking the chance
 
I use Gerome Weinand and have had excellant results with his heat treat and liquid nitrogen heat cryo. He also has a fairly fast turn around time.

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Why do I do it!!
"Because I like my arms shaved,fingers burnt and my fingernails and prints ground off."

www.geocities.com/yosemite/gorge/1657
 
Walt, I have a custom BG-42 folder on the way with heat treat by Paul Bos. D'Holder also is said to do very nice cryoed stainless heat treating.
 
Ah, I am enlightened. I mistakenly thought that all stainless was oil quenched.

Thank you.

('Grasshopper') Walt
 
Obviously Paul Bos is everyones fav.

I would still like to hear if anyone will share their method of heat treating ats34 in detail, such as preheat temp and time, hardening temp/RC readings, Quench possibilities or methods and the temps and time for the final hardness temper. I have been looking for info on this subject and have seen previous post of a low temp versus high temp draw.
Any takers---email is welcome and won't be published--ever!

I would just like to keep all my heat treat in my shop, if I can find a reliable and repeatable process.

Thanks Jonesy

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Scott Jones
Heck yea I invented it ...What is it???
I only do what the voices in my wifes head tell me to do.
It's kinda like hangin, you never get used to it.
 
I use Paul Bos as well, but when I did my own heat treating this was my schedule.

Wrap in high temp foil.
Normalize at 1600F for 30 minutes.
Harden at 1950 for 15 minutes.
Remove from oven and air cool 'til just warm.
Remove foil.
Straighten if warped.
Quench in Liquid Nitrogen for 8 hours.
Triple temper at 950 for 1 hour each.

Final hardness should be about Rc61. If you omit the cryo it will be a point or two lower. Both Hitachi and Crucible (154CM is same as ATS-34) recommend the higher tempering range. Paul did some testing on that and also found it to be preferred by most makers, including Bob Loveless who is about as close to fussy as a knifemaker gets.

Good luck with it.

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Jerry Hossom
www.hossom.com
 
Jerry, where did you get your foil from? Does it have a brand name? I'm thinking that would be nice to use for cutting down on scaling in heat treating.

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Oz

"This is your life, and it's ending; One minute at a time."
http://www.freespeech.org/oz/
 
Most of the Knifemkaing Supply houses sell it. Koval, TKS, K&G, Sheffield all list it. It is kind of pricey, but if it's well crimped it virtually elimiates decarburization. I used to put a little bit of an old cigarette inside to burn off any residual oxygen. I'm not sure that was necessary; maybe the nicotine helped.
smile.gif


Be careful though, the stuff will cut you faster than most knives, and I was usually bleeding after wrapping a few blades.

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Jerry Hossom
www.hossom.com
 
If you used foil during an oil quenching process would you have to remove the foil before quenching or can it be left on. If you have to remove it it seems like you would loose to much heat. -Guy Thomas
 
Silent, I'm not much good on tool steels, but I am told that K&G sells a paint or dip on material that serves the same purpose for oil hardening steels, since they are hardened at lower temps than stainless.

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Jerry Hossom
www.hossom.com
 
Back when I thought I wanted to buy a Paragon and do my own heat-treating I looked everywhere to find the best prices on everything needed.

The cheapest source I found for the foil was Enco. This is the same stainless tool wrap that MSC, Rutland, and all the others sell (including most supply houses) but it was significantly cheaper.

Nick
 
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