Grind in done, heat box ready........But.........

Hi Nick,
I have had a piece of O1 for quite some time that I had
planned to grind and heat treat myself. I have not heat treated
any steel for twenty years. I use stainless.
I am completely fascinated by your reference to using low temp
salt quench. Can I simply use my tempering oven ( toaster oven )
to heat the salt? Can I edge quench without worry of cracking?
You say it's tempered, does it need tweeking ( HRC 58 ), you
know, brass rod the edge for hardness or softness? Thanks much.
 
Looseneck,

I also made a small forge but with one burner. Yours looks real good. I found that if you make the inside chamber round and place the angle of the burner at a slant to create a swirl action of the flame you get a greater distribution of heat I use the white soft fire brick because it does reflect heat better. My large forge is built in this manner with a different type of burner nozzle. I can weld with this forge with good heat distribution. Hope this helps.
 
Hi Don-

Thanks for the inquiry :)

I would NOT recommend you heat the salt in a tempering oven. It would probably get it hot enough, but salts in their molten state are HIGHLY corrosive.

Salt pots should be made (IMHO) from high grade stainless steel. This was discussed quite a bit at the last hammer-in I went to, and one mastersmith says that in his shop he has gone to mild steel for the pot...because he was replacing the pots all the time even with good stainless as the material.

You can build a very cheap low temp salt pot by building a small metal box (water tight of course) or scrounging one, and setting up a Harbor Freight weed burner underneath it.

Depending on the thickness of your tank, it may help you to wrap it with kao-wool (assuming the above type construction).

You'll want a good way to guage your temp, and those options are very broad.

I can't say that I have tried edge quenching in salt yet, so I won't try to give an answer...sorry, but I shouldn't shove my foot too far down my throat ;)

Personally, I feel a lot of the tweaking is done with the thermal cycles and austenitizing.
 
Loosenock,
I dont need 25. If there are a couple of you who would like to share the rest I would be up to buying a box and split the the box with you.
Click to expand...

I'll go for 4-8 of those, drop me a message or an email with your snail mail address & a price and I'll get off a check to you.

I've had no luck getting them here, there's not even a listing in my yellow pages. The only brick place in the area doesn't handle any type of firebrick at all.

Bill H.
 
Thanks Bill, so far I haven't had many takers. I think we'll need about 3 or 4 to go in a split a box. That would be about 20 bucks each. I'll contact you if this thing is a go.

Joe (loosenock)
 
Guys,
I made a trip earlier this week to Axner Pottery Supply in Oveido, Fl. They have soft fire brick (K-23, 3"x4.5"x9") for $3.95 a brick.
Hard brick(high duty 2.5"x4.5"x9") for $3.15 a brick.

Online they are at www.axner.com and their phone # is 800-843-7057.

e-mail: axner@ao.net

Snail mail addy is:
Axner Pottery Supply
490 Kane Ct. P.O. Box 621484
Oveido, Fla. 32765

If you are unable to get ammo cans, I've been using a large steel buffet pan I got at a restaurant supply house here in town as a quench tank. Works PDG so far.:)

I made my world's smallest forge by taking a 1" spade bit, aka a wood boring bit, and drilling out the holes in my brick. I was a little unsure as to whether the brick would hold up to this treatment but it worked great.

BTW,
I went to Axner's to get more fire brick. I want to make a version with a chamber large enough to do some Bowie size blades.:D

edited to add PO Box on addy
 
Thanks Misque, that would probably be the way to go. I think you could make a great little forge with 4 bricks and the large ammo can. I wish this place here in Denver sold by the brick, but they dont. They had quenching oil too, but by the 55 gal drum.

Joe
 
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