Differentially tempered 0-1

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floatlikeariver

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Sep 6, 2006
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Any opinions on differentially tempering and cryrogenic treating ground 0-1 tool steel blades? Clay tempering? Does differential tempering always result in a visible hamon line? Any good threads on the subject? Thanks, fellas.
 
if you go to the search function and type in clay tempering, you will find many posts on the subject.

Chuck
 
Haha- this is an area I can actually be helpful with. I haven't tried any sort of cryo treat, and I haven't used clay yet, but I've done a tests on diff. tempering. What I did was closer to diff. hardening. You take the blade and dip only the edge of it in oil and rock it back and forth, then after several seconds, dunk the entire thing. You get a visible division. The part that was quenching the entire time (the edge area) with appear darker, a smokey color, and the part above with be a lighter grey. Look at Brian Goode's work for fine examples of this. The edge hardens very nicely ( I can't say that I've done an RC test, but but it held an edge better than my buck knife without being impossible to sharpen), and the spine is relativley soft. The best thing about this method of tempering with O-1 is that you have several tries to get it to your liking (O-1 is very forgiving in this area). You may need to use something to bring out the temper line(vinnegar works). On a side note- a hammon and a temper line are two very different things.

Use the search functions for good threads.
 
Searches. Riiiiiight... Who'dathunkit. Tons of threads. Excuse my forum ignorance. Still would like to hear personal accounts on cryro treated 0-1, however. I've gotten conflicting opinions from different makers. Some say it makes tighter more uniform grain, others that dosn't make much difference in high carbon steels. I would like to gather all the information that I can, as I am out to make the finest blades I possibly can, as I'm sure you are. maybe we could all benifit from personal factual accounts on what seems to be a controversial subject. Thanks again for your responses.
 
The grain is defined by the temperature and time the steel is held at prior to quench. Cryo does not alter this. Cryo allows the retained Austenite to convert into Martensite. In simple steels like O-1 and 1095 there should be very little retained Austenite,so there is little gain to Cryo. The HT and temper are far more important in these steels.Edge quenching,full quenching,clay coating the blade,and differential tempering will all give different results. Experiment with one type of steel and several types of HT. This will give you a basis on how you personally like to do it. A differential temper is a good idea on any full use blade.Nothing like a hard edge and a springy spine to make a blade a workhorse.
Stacy
 
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