Differential heat treat?

Disco Stu

Disco Stu

Joined
Nov 9, 1999
Messages
1,137
I'm going to try heat treating and tempering a blade made of 0-1 tool steel but I want the edge to be around rockwell 60-62 and the spine to be around 40. Anyone know how I'd do this?


[This message has been edited by Disco Stu (edited 02-03-2001).]
 
the way i do my blades...most are O-1...is to heat treat..i believe they come out at 64 to 65..then i temper at 350 for 2 , 1 hour cycles..then put the edge in wet sand, and bring the spine back to a bright blue using a good propane torch..make a damn tough blade!but i think the edge is about 58 to 59 rockwell and they pass the brass rod test!!you may have to experiment with temper times and temperature!!have fun!!

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i keep grinding and grinding and it is still too short!!
 
An edge quench also works fine, as long as the back cools SLOWLY. o1 likes to air harden somewhat. BTW, that rockwell seems a little high to me...
 
As George wrote, just quench the edge of the blade. Ed Caffrey showed me this. Here is an example of his blades that are etched. Beautiful temper lines
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Thanks guys. I've collected a ton of info on what to do after I get the blade shaped. It's that first part...
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And George, I thought so too (on the edge hardness) but I saw a really nice traditional Japanese katana once that claimed having an edge at 65 and a spine in the 30's. Seemed a little extreme to me, both ways, but this was one beautiful sword and I have to believe the makers put some thought into it. I guess I'll find out.
 
Tamahagane (edit: and any other realistic material for proper Japanese-style blades) in just about every case I know of will not achieve 65 on the C scale. The edge will generally be around 57-61, depending on the individual sword. Lots of variability, but that's a basic range for the edge. I'd suggest moving that discussion to my forum though.

As far as zone-hardening, differential temper, whatever you want to call it...plenty of ways to go about doing it...the wet sand idea sounds kinda neat to me.

[This message has been edited by Robert Marotz (edited 02-14-2001).]
 
Thanks for the input Robert. Could have been a lie. It was in some catalog for over $500 I believe...looked well made from what I could see.

Anyway, the wet sand idea is probably the way I'll go. But I should get off the computer and actually make the blade before thinking about it too hard.
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Stu, I have seen blades like that online, usually the Chen, Cas Iberia, MRL, etc stuff that is mis-represented. Don't bother with it, get a real blade from Howard Clark or Randal Graham. Costs more, but looks sooooo much nicer
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