Elmax heat treat help

Justin Schmidt

Justin Schmidt

Joined
Feb 18, 2016
Messages
2,209
So I heat treated some elmax based off AKS info. It went as followed
Ramp 1200 equalize
Ramp 1500 equalize
Ramp 1900 equalize
Ramp 2100 soak 15 min
Air cool
Ln2 bath 1 hour
Temper 300 x2 1 hour each

I'm getting 65 and 66 rc!
What the heck?
Now i did temper in my kitchen oven that is pretty new. And haven't double checked it with a TC.

I double checked my hardness tester against the test block and it's dead on
I have an evenheat lb18 with tap controller.

Any advice?
God bless
 
Justin Schmidt said:
So I heat treated some elmax based off AKS info. It went as followed
Ramp 1200 equalize
Ramp 1500 equalize
Ramp 1900 equalize
Ramp 2100 soak 15 min
Air cool
Ln2 bath 1 hour
Temper 300 x2 1 hour each

I'm getting 65 and 66 rc!
What the heck?
Now i did temper in my kitchen oven that is pretty new. And haven't double checked it with a TC.

I double checked my hardness tester against the test block and it's dead on
I have an evenheat lb18 with tap controller.

Any advice?
God bless
Click to expand...
What’s the problem?
You want to temper down the hardness?
 
What did you get before the new kitchen oven? 65-66 Rc might be unrealistically high regardless of your heat treatment though, I would look at a few things like making sure the steel is flat when hardness testing.
 
Sorry should've clarified it was supposed to come out to be 61.5 after heat treat
That's what I was thinking larrin was it's insanely high for elmax.
Does anyone know the high temp temper?
And it came blanchard ground from AKS I checked it against my 9in disk and granite plate and it flat
 
Natlek said:
Something must be wrong with your hardness measurement ...............
Click to expand...
It tested perfect against the test block. Either theres still decarb on the blade after the 1000 temper or it's not as flat as I thought.
But I've ground the hell out of the blade to remove decarb
 
Justin Schmidt said:
It tested perfect against the test block. Either theres still decarb on the blade after the 1000 temper or it's not as flat as I thought.
But I've ground the hell out of the blade to remove decarb
Click to expand...
Well first numbers are to high and temper numbers are to low .Are you sure that your oven was good calibrated ? Maybe 1000 F on display are 1200 inside oven ? There must be logical explanation to this ........I bet on flatness :)
 
Justin Schmidt said:
It tested perfect against the test block. Either theres still decarb on the blade after the 1000 temper or it's not as flat as I thought.
But I've ground the hell out of the blade to remove decarb
Click to expand...
Just to be clear.............when we say flat we mind that sides where you measured hardness are parallel . If they are not you will get false readings ........... of course they need to be grinded with fine grit , don t recall now which grit size was
 
Hey Justin it does seem like testing error. I'm not sure Elmax has the potential for that high of AQ hardness.
On another note you probably don't need the 1200, 1500 and 1900 heats before aus. IIRC those are for large or thick parts that otherwise wouldn't heat evenly. With our relatively thin material you can go directly to aus temp. However, I usually put the blade in just short of target temp to allow the oven to "recover" before starting the timer. That way it gets the full time at target temp.
 
Well gents it seems like a flatness issue. There was a .04 disparity between the left and right side by the pivot hole and a .10 disparity at the tip of the blade. Face palm.
 
How thin was the stock?
Recently I had an issue with Elmax piece from AKS, it was around 0.08". I got 64 after my HT before tempering, and it was done with dry ice only, no LN. Aust temp was 2010, plate quenching, freezer, dry ice. That's my usual protocol I used dozen times before, never saw 64, was 61-62 at most.

This piece grinds like a pure carbon - rain of sparks. And the worst thing - it rusts and stains. Feels like 3V or z-wear at best. I didn't believe that Elmax, don't want to say anything wrong about AKS - never had a single problem, best store ever. Jessica assured there is no way they could send me a wrong steel. So I wonder if this was a "special" batch from mill?
 
Alex Dron said:
How thin was the stock?
Recently I had an issue with Elmax piece from AKS, it was around 0.08". I got 64 after my HT before tempering, and it was done with dry ice only, no LN. Aust temp was 2010, plate quenching, freezer, dry ice. That's my usual protocol I used dozen times before, never saw 64, was 61-62 at most.

This piece grinds like a pure carbon - rain of sparks. And the worst thing - it rusts and stains. Feels like 3V or z-wear at best. I didn't believe that Elmax, don't want to say anything wrong about AKS - never had a single problem, best store ever. Jessica assured there is no way they could send me a wrong steel. So I wonder if this was a "special" batch from mill?
Click to expand...

how long ago did you buy it? I think they found out that there was a surface layer on the steel from the mill that needs to be ground off. I think they do it in house now before shipping the steel to customers.
 
I know about this. It was this year purchase, January or February. The steel blank had no scales, btw, shiny white metal - it was ground for sure.
 
it was .136 I think or something close. They have a not stating it has to be blanchard ground due to the mill scale causing issues. It wasnt flat from me grinding it to make sure it was flat. Ironic I know.
I'm just gonna have @JTknives surface grind all my stuff from now on to make sure its flat
 
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