Cpm 154 heat treatment

H

hppyevraftr

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I've done a few knives on my uncles kiln, mostly 1095.

Got a piece of CPM 154, I DO NOT want to mail/send it out for heat treatment.
Can someone please give me the simple version on how to heat treat this stuff?
I can reach 2200 degrees if need be in the kiln, prefer not to get into salt baths, I think I read somewhere that is done w/ CPM 154. Hopefully someone knows a way around it & can help me directly.

I played w/ someone else's knives that were done in CPM 154, & they were very sharp.

Got it from Admiral, if anyone wants to know the exact specifics. Thanks.
 
For CPM154, you'll need some sort of protection for your steel because of high temps and long soaks. I use stainless heat treating foil and crimp air-tight packets. I bring the oven up to 1400 for a while to heat soak the oven, then put the packet/blade in to equalize to that temp. Then I ramp to 1925 for a 30 minute hold. I plate quench between 1" aluminum plates. As quenched I usually get around 61RC. You can get another point or so by following quench with a cryo treatment in LN. I temper a minimum of 400F for 2 rounds of 2 hours which yields around 59RC.

--nathan
 
You're the man Silver Pilate. That's the exact type of info. I was looking for.
Short, sweet, & complete. Thank you so much. I've been wondering about this for awhile.
My sincere gratitude.
 
i run hot and hard but i also have cryo and make kitchen knives
but for me i run blades in foil in kiln
ramp 1500 hold 5 min
rammp to 2000f hold 25min
Al plate quench to room temp and then into Ln2 over night
temper 2x2 hours 400 gives 62-63
but all kilns read different and soem ppl have trouble gettign the quench hardness needed for a 400f temper to yeald 62rc
 
No problem, hppy. BTW, the 59RC is without cryo and with a lower hold temperature.... Expect a point or two with cryo and 1925F and more if you shoot for the higher temp butcher_block uses. However, if you don't do cryo, you need to lower your austenitizing temperature to between 1900-1950 as 2000F will yield you around 54RC as quenched without cryo. The higer austenitizing temp will create more retained austenite after the quench that needs to be converted via cryo (which is basically a continued quench to very low temps). It will result in a harder blade with cryo, but without it, the RA will haunt you....

Oh, and the plate quench is done with the foil packet still on the blade.

BTW, here's a link to the heat treating info I have:

http://www.burgessknives.com/media/CPM154.pdf

And some more miscellaneous PDF's I've collected on various steels:

http://www.burgessknives.com/34601.html

--nathan
 
Thank you Butcher & Silver.
I ran it tonight, hit 1935-1960 for 30 mins.
Tempering now! First cycle. You guys helped me so much. I freaked out when I realized I went over 1925......then seen what you posted Butcher, now I'm relieved it wasn't all for nothing.
Thanks Guys!
 
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