Heat Treat Gone Bad (Pics)

B

brandonm123

Joined
Dec 27, 2012
Messages
8
I had just finished my third knife and the only thing left to do was heat treat it (9 inch hunter out of 3/16 O1 steel). So I started up my forge that I made from an old fire extinguisher and put the blade in. I had it in there for about 5 minutes and went and to check on it and the wire I had it connected to for easy removal had melted, but thought nothing of it so I left it for a few more minutes. When I went to pull the knife out I couldn't see it anymore, after some investigating I found a puddle of molten metal at the bottom of my forge and no knife....

The killer
forge3_zpse5b174ff.jpg


All that was left
forge2_zps1ad4bc13.jpg
 
O1 forging temps: 1900 F down to 1575 F

To melt it like that, you were significantly over 1900 degrees F

2590 F or so!


Guess you seriously need to cut back on the forced air!
 
Looks like you may have so warp and decarb to deal with there lol. Sorry to see you lose a knife at that stage though.
 
I think this post got stuck in the either for six days. I was supposed to post on April 1.
 
That setup looks a lot like what we smelt steel in. Not a good idea to forge or HT in it.

Years back I put a blade in a low burning coal forge and covered it with the coals and had just barely any airflow. I was planning on letting it heat up slowly. Someone else came over to use the forge, tossed on some more coal, cranked the blower to high and went away to get some supplies. I came back and saw the flames, turned off the blast, and tried to find the blade....all I found was this one funny looking clinker like thing.
 
Well, the good news is you know the furnace works well enough to do some smelting...

I guess the next thing is to figure out what the range of capbility is and how to control it more effectively.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top