getting the heat treat right this time.

H

heatheninthehills

Joined
Apr 14, 2009
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ok so the first post of this I had some good advice so this is what i will do this time so I dont screw this up. OK so its out of a tiller tine, I plan on heating the blade to non magnetic for about 2 maybe 3 minutes and then let it cool. after that I will forge out the blade. Then i will heat steel to non magnetic for about 3 minutes and quench in heated motor oil (which is all i have at the moment). then I will break so as to see what it did. If grain is small i'll check with file and if all is well I will start over with fresh metal. if all is not well I will wait in ordered steel and start fron scratch. So hopefully all will go well :)
 
Heathen,
I'm assuming that the first heat cycle was to anneal the tine, is it cooling gradually like being buried in some insulation or cooling in the forge body? or is just air cooling like a normalizing cycle?

A lot of tiller tines are 1095ish in behavior, I've made some decent knives out of them (yes, UNKNOWN STEEL :eek:) They make some really cool brut de forge blades or integrals (the taper helps a lot :p )

To get the "best" performance it's going to require a soak at temp but if you just want to make a blade that should outperform most wally-world blades what you're doing is fine.

* legal disclaimer...... I humbly acknowledge that giving advice about "unknown steel" may violate the terms and conditions of my membership in the steel snob society. I prostrate myself before the membership of said group with the explanation that I just want to people make knives that make them happy. :)
 
Yes the first heat was to anneal. the se4cond was to heat treat and the grain came out way smaller this time. the file test was fine as well so I think I got it right this time so off to make a blade.
 
You need a couple of shades of red hotter than just non-magnetic for the hardening quench, or you will not get a good solution. The file test will not tell much, other than it is harder than 58/59 Rc. It will not tell you if it is hard martensite, hard pearlite, or is as hard as it should be. Use the magnet as a guide to know that you have to go hotter. That is all it is good for. Canola oil would be much better than motor oil. It is thinner, and faster cooling. Heat it to around 130°.
 
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