Heat treat electric oven

B

BIG_ARM

Joined
Mar 15, 2018
Messages
3
Hello,
I am very new to forums. I hope I am not pissing anyone off by posting in the wrong place if so I apologize in advance. I just purchased a new evenheat furnace. I have been using torches until now. I have made about 20 knives from 01 and the quality has been OK. My question: when does one place the knife in the oven? Do I let it heat slowly with the oven or put it in when the oven has reached temp. I have searched on the forum but there is alot of info on here and I cannot find this bit of info.
 
From what I’ve gotten from everyone here, I’m understanding it’s better to heat the oven to austenizing temp, then place the blade in, and start your soak. If I’m using clay, I put the blade in when the oven is cold and let them both come up to heat together. Been working ok so far
 
My understanding and experience is as follows. Simple steels like o1 and 1084 can be placed into a heated kiln (1500f ish) for 10 to 15 minutes. I have done it both ways. For these types of steels there seems to be no advantage to leaving it in longer or putting it in at room temp. The decarb gets worse the longer you leave it in. More complex steels have different requirments. I would look into your specific steel instead of general heat treat info. I just purchased a hardness tester and i really like being able to see measured results to base my assumptions on. That being said im still pretty new to this. Best of luck.
 
Carbon steel can go in once the oven is at the set temperature. A hold of 10-15 minutes is sufficient.

Stainless steels , and high alloy steels, need different treatment. They generally go in at 1200F and get a short soak to equalize, the ramp to the target temp. Time at the target varies from 15 minutes to an hour. The HT data sheet for the steel should give you all that info.
 
I have been using a propane forge with Venturi burner. I run it really rich with big orange flame out of the front. Heat treating 01 and using a k-type thermocouple. I put the blade in when I light the burner and take them out when reading is 1475. The paperwork with the steel outlines bringing the steel up to temperature but I think a lot of that is in regards to normalizing large industrial pieces. I use flat ground stock that is annealed. I have been told that 01 likes a heat treat in a rich burning gas forge rather than an electric oven.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top