Can you home heat treat 440-C?

T

Terry_Dodson

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Jul 10, 2002
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I have had a request (by my wife's parents)to make a couple knives but they are insistant on me making them out of stainless (they already have a couple of mine made out of 01 but they dont want the new ones to turn color). Can i heat treat 440-C steel at home like i do 01 and the 10xx series?
 
That deppends on how you HT your 10xx. As long as you have an oven capable of reaching temp (sounds like you do if you are doing o1 at home) and some good HT foil then yes you can. Since it is air hardening quench plates are nice but not nessecary. My second knife was 440c, ht'ed in a paragon and left on a wire rack to cool. Wrap the blade up well and try and get a good crimp on the foil pouch without creating any holes, follow HT recomeneded for 440c then remove to let cool. If you have any quench plates plce the bag in between them while it cools.

If you mean they dont want the knives to get a patina then 440c should work. They will most likely come out of HT needing some grinding to make them shiney again though.
 
Thanks. I have a forge with a temp meter that goes to 2000 degrees farenheight, and a farily large toaster oven that goes to 600 degrees (with an extra thermometer inside to verify temps) that i have been heat treating my 01 and 10xx in. How close to finished should i go on the edges and what temps and times should i shoot for on the 440-C?
 
A dimes thickness at the edge is the standard from what I have been told and is how thick I leave my edges before HT (except when screw up, then I cross my fingers). I havent used 440c in a bit so I will let someone else answer that but I think I did 1880 for 30 minutes soak and tempered at 375.
 
Hi Terry, you'd think I would learn but here goes anyway ;) Admiral lists austenitizing at 1850*-1950* ; soak 5 min ; quench in warm oil or air cool. 1 hr. @ 300* will yield ~ 60 HRC while 500* will yield ~ 57 HRC
 
Terry, the forge will do fine for 10XX steels and O-1, but the heat control would be tricky on stainless. A pipe muffle would help, but would not be the same as a dedicated HT oven. You really need to be able to get the entire blade at the same exact temp ( within about 5 degrees) and hold it there for as long as 30 minutes for many stainless steels.
Stacy
 
BigJimSlade said:
I think I was doing 30 min soak because it was 1/4 inch thick but it was probably overkill. =P
Click to expand...

Hey BigJim :) Yeah, I don't use 440C and was surprised to find Admiral recommended a 5 min soak. What alloying elements or lack there of allows for such short soak time with 440C ?
 
440C doesn't have large amounts of MO,V,W. But I would soak longer than 5 min. Precise temperature control is the the key to proper HT.
 
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