dumb tempering question...

J

jontok

Joined
Jun 20, 2004
Messages
194
I'm trying to get this through my thick scull...;)

HOW do you temper 1095 (or L6 for that matter)????
I know you temper it at a sepsific temperature, but for how long do you need to heat it, and what do you do once youre done heating it?:confused:

I'm trying to sort this out before I get started on my first knife:D


-jontok
 
You can use your kitchen oven , preheat oven to tempering temperature [~ 200 C ] ,put knife in for 2 hours , air cool knife. For more complex steels repeat the process.
 
Thanks for the help! :)

Now if I can only convince my wife to let me use her oven for that... :)

ps: Do I temper a medium/small 1095 knife only once, or is it better to do it 2-3 times?

-jontok
 
I temper blades in my oven all of the time.when we first got married my wife was skeptical, but I made sure that I had cleaned all of the oil off of the blade first so there was no smoke (I use olive oil for my heat treat quench so it wouldn't have been anything toxic anyway) I put pizza stones on the top and bottom racks, preheat the oven for a good half-3/4 hour to even it out, and put the blade between the pizza stones on a wire rack that isolates it from touching the stones, I use cookie sheets for infrared shielding if I use the electric oven

-Page
 
I will ask this because you are starting out. Do you mean temper or harden. Before you temper the steel you must first harden it. 1095 needs to be heated to between 1450 and 1500 and held there for a few minutes and then quenched in a fast quench oil. Automatic Transmission oil heated to about 130 degrees will work. Do this once. After hardening then comes tempering. You would want to heat the blade to 400f for 2 hours, do this twice. This will complete the conversion of mantinsite and remove internal stress and make the blade tougher. Hardening and tempering are 2 different operations done in sequence. Lots more technical stuff avalible search for Mete and Cashens threads, they are the real experts
 
Thank you all for helping me out here!

ib2v4u: I mean to temper... Hardening has been fully explained in other threads, but I couldn't find one that said more about tempering. Usually people just say that you should temper at around 400-500f, and leave it at that. But they don't say for how long or what to do after you take the blade out of the heat...


-jontok
 
The exact temperature sort of depends on a little testing that you may need to learn. If it was fully hardened, and say, you temper it once at 400 for 1-2 hours, and you have it fully ground to a cutting edge, you may want to slightly flex that edge to see if it chips! it it does, you'll want to increase that temp 25 degrees, and do it again. then test again!
After a learning process, you'll discover how your steel works with your particular hardening process, and you'll know what temp to use for that steel in YOUR oven!
Personally, I do my tempering cycle, shut the oven off and let it cool down in the oven.
 
mete: Darn! And I'm makeing some kromkaker today anyway... well, sometimes I guess you do need two stones to kill two birds :)

-jontok
 
jontok,
Do a search, in this forum labeled "Tempering talk".
It will help answer alot of the questions you have.
If you can't find it, write back.
Hope this helps.
 
jontok said:
Thanks for the help! :)

Now if I can only convince my wife to let me use her oven for that...
Click to expand...

I found that a knife in the oven does as much harm as a rack or cookie sheet; as long as it has no gunk on it. Good luck!
 
my wife is way cool with it. i will call her after work and ask her to pre heat to 400 for me. and she will put in my 2 aluminum plates and my oven thermonitor. then when when i get home i just pop the blade in and have dinner. my oven has to be set to 425 to reach 400. so dont trust what the oven is telling you. i temper from 2-4 hrs, i like a long temper. but i keep the thermonitor in with the blade and check every 1/2hr to make shure the temp is not creeping up any.
 
Or, you could do like the old timers down here south tell me: just stick the blade in your corn bread when in comes out of the oven. When the corn bread is ready to eat, the blade is just right. (Honest, I have heard this from more than one geezer.)
 
Thank's again for all the help! :)
I think I finally got this through my thick scull! :)

-jontok
 
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