Commercial Heat Treater - Oil Quenching Stainless?

C_Claycomb

C_Claycomb

Joined
Dec 11, 2000
Messages
1,084
Looking at sending some CPM154, Sandvik 12C27 and AEB-L out for heat treating with a professional and was wondering what folk here would think of the process described by this HT service provider?

....we heat treat most grades of steels, both Carbon, Stainless & Damascus....

All heat treatment is effected from a digitally controlled furnace and blades are quenched in our own hybrid system which is a combination of an appropriately formulated mineral quench oil and a quench press designed to virtually eliminate distortion in the blade.

We do not work with a protective atmosphere but instead use anti-scaling paints to reduce decarburisation and minimise scaling. All blades are sand blast cleaned prior to dispatch.

Carbon Steel blades are tempered once and Stainless Steel blades are tempered twice unless otherwise requested.

We do not have liquid nitrogen or dry ice cryogenic facilities. Stainless steel blades are oil quenched and then cooled to -13F for a minimum of 1 hour and our hardening temperatures and times for Stainless Steel blades are optimised to give best results with this level of cooling. We feel that more severe cryogenic treatments for Stainless Steel are only really necessary for air or vacuum quench hardening processes that generate higher levels of retained austenite during the quench.

All blades are hardness tested on the tang and a test certificate will be sent with the blades.
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Oil quenching stainless was talked about here once upon a time, but usually in combination with folk experimenting with torch hardening. Usually 440C.

Do you think the above process provide you with acceptable results?

Thanks

Chris
 
Unless the guy above is HT'ing for almost free, and you're acceptable to the results, then use https://www.jarodtodd.com/ for HT'ing. For the steels you mention they'll benefit from LN treatment. JT knows what he's doing and is very fairly priced.
 
No worries! I have seriously considered JT. I have used Paul Bos in the past. Options for blade treatment are limited here in the UK. I have had blades treated in with other makers’ batches and by makers who have cryo and who have worked out recipes for two or three preferred steels.

This is the first UK service I have seen that appears to be set up for blades as their business. I have heard the provider described as “a master with decades in the industry”. However I am wary as I have seen scant to no reviews of the service and the description of process for steel appears to be quite different from what I have seen here described as best practice.
 
not sure if I'm down with the whole "All blades are sand blast cleaned prior to dispatch"
 
I also don’t like the part where he only tempers carbon steels once, to me that’s a dumb corner to cut which makes me question everything else he does.
 
There is nothing inherently wrong with oil quenching of stainless as long as they aren't having warping issues. The statement that cryogenic processing is only necessary with vacuum hardening is somewhat suspect. Slower cooling can lead to more retained austenite, but the amount of RA is very much dictated by the austenitizing temperature as well. The statement that the hardening temperature is optimized for the freezer would refer to dialing in the austenitizing temperature, as cryo would allow an even higher temperature for more hardness.
 
Joshua Fisher said:
I also don’t like the part where he only tempers carbon steels once, to me that’s a dumb corner to cut which makes me question everything else he does.
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Tempering must be done after quenching .Next tempering can be delayed for a long time .User can do that on temperature he think is needed for that steel and knife use .I think that s why they do only one tempering ..............
 
Natlek said:
Tempering must be done after quenching .Next tempering can be delayed for a long time .User can do that on temperature he think is needed for that steel and knife use .I think that s why they do only one tempering ..............
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Did you ask him?
 
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