Grain Size and Normalizing WITH UPDATED GRAIN SHOTS

When you are heating the piece for the oil quench BEFORE the normalizing cycle are you holding it for a set amount of time...or are you bringing it to temp (say 1475) then quenching as soon as it reaches that target temp?

Also can I follow the pre normalization oil quench with a 1 hour hold at 1250 then air cool? Would that be counterintuitive after the pre normalization oil quench?

Great looking grain! That oil quench really does something special.
 
Thank you AC. I must have misunderstood at some point. I was having a hard time wrapping my brain around the process of getting to the temps used to harden the steel AFTER the heat treatment. I kept thinking, wouldn't you lose the hardening? This makes sense to me now. I will get a high temp thermometer for the forge I am building, and see how well I can control the heat. If I can get good heat control, I will be doing some trials on scrap cutoffs before using the fully formed blade. I was thinking something like this: http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=199
 
I found the links to the PID controlled forges. I will be accumulating some parts next month . I will start building the chamber now though. I see Auberins is frequented by many here.
 
Willie, yes Auberins is a great outfit. That is where I buy my controllers from. Fast shipping, good prices and great customer service. Had to call them a couple of times and they were very helpful.

Shaw, I held this one at 1475f for about 5 minutes. Long soaks at 1250f is not really required unless you plan to do a spherodize anneal. For the purpose of this thread it was more snap heats. However try different procedures and see what happens. That is the beauty of this craft, you can try different things to see what works for you.
 
Thanks!

A C Richards said:
Willie, yes Auberins is a great outfit. That is where I buy my controllers from. Fast shipping, good prices and great customer service. Had to call them a couple of times and they were very helpful.

Shaw, I held this one at 1475f for about 5 minutes. Long soaks at 1250f is not really required unless you plan to do a spherodize anneal. For the purpose of this thread it was more snap heats. However try different procedures and see what happens. That is the beauty of this craft, you can try different things to see what works for you.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks all. We have heard and read what is supposed to happen during the normalizing/thermocycling process but I have never seen it illustrated with photographs. So I just thought you all might like to actually see it. I know it makes a much greater impression on me when I see what goes on. I am amazed sometimes how much repair/refinement can be accomplished on steel. You can take a piece that was grossly overheated and there is a good possibility it can be salvaged. That it so long as nothing structurally has been done to the steel, ie burned or cracked.

Glad you all are getting something out of it.
 
This thread got me to thinking (dangerous I know) about my heat treat and the riddle of steel. Pretty interesting results:

2i99aq.jpg


Thanks for starting this thread AC.
 
The steel in the picture is O1 by the way. The text turned out ridiculously small. Its still readable if you zoom in though.
 
The one on the left looks very good, but the one on the right is a riddle to me. I tested a piece of 01 scrap a couple of days ago with no normalizing, and it looks as good, if not better, than that one on the left. I pre-heated for 30 minutes at 1250°, ramped to 1400° for 15 mins. for the oven to pre-heat a little, then to 1475° for 20minutes after leveling off, quenched in Parks AAA heated to 130°. Grain was like gray cream. Could not see individual grain without a 10x jewelers loop. Anyone care to explain that?
 
The 01 I am using is from Amtec. Amtec is merely a dealer, so I don't it's true origins. I tried to take pics, but my camera will not focus as close as needed. I was told years back, from a metallurgist bladesmith, that there was no need to normalize PG 01, as it was already done and ready to HT unless it has been forged. Any I have tested over the years, looks much like my recent test.
 
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I broke an A2 blade not long ago, by accident, and it looked pretty much like the fine side. I found a procedure for normalizing A2, but it wasnt used on the one I broke.
 
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