Heat Treat Crud?

L6steel

L6steel

Joined
Sep 23, 1999
Messages
5,855
I wrap my stainless blades real tight for heat treat. One batch I put a strip of cardboard in each pack and they came out with a little extra discoloration but nothing real bad. The last batch I put a 1 inch square of brown paper grocery bag in each pack and they came out with hard black scale on them. What could have caused this? How do you folks wrap your blades? Is it necessary to double wrap them? Thanks!!
 
soounds like you didn't have enough paper to take the atmoshere out of the package to stop the scaling,Try a bigger piece of paper next time..
Bruce
 
Mike, it sounds like you need to give that powdered stuff a try. Bob used to use it on all of his folder blades. I can't remember the name of it but surely someone here can enlighten you on some brand names. Seems like Brownells makes some. Anyway, you get the blade to a dull red heat and drop it in the powder and shake it around to get a complete covering. Just like Grandma's fried chicken! It forms a hard layer on the steel and protects it from oxidation. When you quench it the covering falls off leaving a nice clean surface. Sorry I don't have any specifics. The container Bob used is so old the label is unreadable.
 
L6, never tried paper, but have been using plain old sawdust sweepings from the saw and it seems to be working ok for oxidation control.

Don't know much about the variables of wood composition for the best choice but the sawdust is probably pine from generic 2x4's. A hefty pinch is about all, bigger pouches getting two.

The paper may contain various chemicals used in manufacture, coloring or stiffening.
 
I'm a pretty inexperienced heat treater, so tell me this... Do you use heat treating wrap for oil quenching blades? I thought it was only used on air hardening steels? Thanks.
 
Thanks for the tips guys!!! I think I'll try the strip of cardboard with the next batch. Thanks for the link Fox!!
Whit, I was wondering that too.
 
I got here kinda late. Thanks for the compliment Fox.

Unfortunately, the PBC compound used in my article won't work with the temperatures required for high alloy air-hardening steels. It is only effective up to about 1600 degrees F. It's great for carbon steels though.
 
yeah, it is ok to use heat treating foil for quenching in oil. I put a piece of wood with the blade that is about the size of a match stick and wrap the foil as tight as I can get it and seal. bring it up to heat. Remove and quench imeadiatly[sp]. foil and all. I did this with some stainless damascuss a little while ago and got excellent results. yes I did a triple quench triple temper.
 
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