hammer texture on AEB-L

[elementfe]

Just wondering if anyone out there has done this- am I entering a mine field?
The plan is to just hammer a bit at yellow heat, enough to make a rough texture on the flats of a cooking knife, soak at 1500 for an hour and then slow cool in the oven for some stress relief, then HT as usual.
Is there a monster hiding under the bed?
If the time and materials budget for this project was higher, I'd just use a stainless/carbon sanmai, but trying to do a couple quick pieces on the cheap.

 

[REK Knives]

Kyle Bettleyon (small time knife maker, but good at it ) has done a hammer tone mirror finish on his knives. He did it post ht I think though, not sure exactly how but it looked amazing!

 

[james terrio]

I don't know. I'd be leery of doing that with any air-hardening steel, though. You may not even have to, depending on how deep you want the texture.

Cut two small coupons. Hammer on one in its normal annealed state, and the other after heating as you described. HT both normally and see if you can tell any difference.

 

[elementfe]

Oh, duh....thanks so much, JT, that's the obvious solution, isn't it, to just do it cold. It's just a light pattern with a large radius ball pein.
I do want the dark finish, though, but i think it'll be fine for what it's for!

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Your plan will work.

Forge stainless steel hot - at 1800-2200F - and never work below 1700F. A stress relief and slow cooling to below 900F will not hurt anything. No need to slow cool below 900F

Plan the hammer work before starting. Polish the hammer face so it leave smooth marks. If needed, texture or shape a hammer to make specific marks.

A 1# ball peen with a modified and polished ball makes nice marks. Sand the ball down to make it a truncated cone with a rounded end. Polish the end bright and smooth.

 

[elementfe]

Thanks for the tips, Stacy!
I do have a whole set of various texturing peens, courtesy of my Black Smithing (B.S. for short) career.

 

[Shaw Blades]

Your plan will work.

Forge stainless steel hot - at 1800-2200F - and never work below 1700F. A stress relief and slow cooling to below 900F will not hurt anything. No need to slow cool below 900F

Plan the hammer work before starting. Polish the hammer face so it leave smooth marks. If needed, texture or shape a hammer to make specific marks.

A 1# ball peen with a modified and polished ball makes nice marks. Sand the ball down to make it a truncated cone with a rounded end. Polish the end bright and smooth.

What about normalizing afterwards? A couple of ramps to around 1900 and air cool?

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

That would just harden it to some degree.

I would do a 20-30 minute soak at 1600F and cool to black, or a longer soak at 1350F and cool to black. both will anneal and stress relieve AEB-L.

 

[DevinT]

AEB-L can be fully annealed by 30 minutes at 1600 then dropping the furnace temp to 1375 and holding for 6 hours, then furnace cool to 1000 and air cool. After forging at 1700-1750, temper anneal at 1375- 1425 for 6 to 12 hours. Best to wrap the blade in foil before annealing.

Hoss

 

[Shaw Blades]

Good stuff guys. Thx

 

[elementfe]

Thank you, Gentlemen!
Just the info I was looking for.

 

[elementfe]

Just a note to thank all who volunteered info, the knives came out well. (handles weren't buffed yet in this photo)

https://goo.gl/photos/3dK4ES3bjMtvzbG37

 

[james terrio]

Those look very nice

 

[photonjunkie]

Very nice knives elementfe.

 

[elementfe]

Thanks!
These are a wedding set- I would have liked to put a lot more work into the handles, but the couple leans toward quality ingredients with a rustic look, so this is just what they were looking for.
Definitely a technique I'll use again- I forged at a very bright orange and somehow resisted the temptation to hit it red
Then did a fairly basic SR cycle, as Stacy suggested, then regular AEBL HT to 61 with subzero, took it to 400 green chrome cork belt on the bevels and just a scrub with coarse scotchbrite on the rough.