Ground breaking heat treating discovery!

Joseph Bandeko

Joseph Bandeko

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Dec 9, 2021
Messages
1,363
So I was experimenting with some different things trying to come up with a better heat treating method and stumbled across this...
(Thus far I’ve only tried it with simple carbon steels but I’m sure you could modify it slightly to work for other steels as well)

So here goes, I heated the steel up as slowly as possible to 1725f (very important to go as slow as possible here) then soaked at that temp for 30 minutes, then I pulled the blade out of the oven and put it directly into the tempering oven set to 650f, then I did three 45 minute cycles like that in the oven, with a cryo cycle in between each temper cycle.

Using the method above I was able to reach a final HRC of between 65 and 69! (depending on the steel I used) and the blades have amazing toughness as well, I mean just outstanding toughness!!

I can’t wait to hear what y’all have to say about this new break through!!
 
you may have just discovered austempering

or, it may be hard from surface oxides and tough because the core is soft. what hardness do you get if you grind off a significant amount of the surface and test again?
 
Backyard said:
you may have just discovered austempering

or, it may be hard from surface oxides and tough because the core is soft. what hardness do you get if you grind off a significant amount of the surface and test again?
Click to expand...
Oh yah I made sure to grind through the decarb layer before testing.
 
Bunker Hill Blades said:
So I was experimenting with some different things trying to come up with a better heat treating method and stumbled across this...
(Thus far I’ve only tried it with simple carbon steels but I’m sure you could modify it slightly to work for other steels as well)

So here goes, I heated the steel up as slowly as possible to 1725f (very important to go as slow as possible here) then soaked at that temp for 30 minutes, then I pulled the blade out of the oven and put it directly into the tempering oven set to 650f, then I did three 45 minute cycles like that in the oven, with a cryo cycle in between each temper cycle.

Using the method above I was able to reach a final HRC of between 65 and 69! (depending on the steel I used) and the blades have amazing toughness as well, I mean just outstanding toughness!!

I can’t wait to hear what y’all have to say about this new break through!!
Click to expand...

May I suggest an incremental improvement ? For the cryo cycles, use the Swiss method, stick the blades in the glacier behind your house. Adds the toughness required to cut raclette cheese, among others.
 
ferider said:
May I suggest an incremental improvement ? For the cryo cycles, use the Swiss method, stick the blades in the glacier behind your house.
Click to expand...
That might work, but probably not as well because it’s just not as cold 🤷🏻‍♂️
 
I think I'll just leave the scale and decarb. Brut de forge is in right now...
 
I tried raclette cheese once...it's no joke. It's aroma is like an entire teenage hockey and lacrosse teams feet put together. Nastiest smelling cheese I have ever tried! I pity the knife used to cut/scrape that stuff!
 
Yeah, it's the second of April now. Back to telling the truth.
Unless it involves hardness testing files. If so, carry on...
 
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