Heat Treat Question - Batching 1095 with 52100?

D

Daniel Swanson

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Mar 13, 2018
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I have a batch of blades with 13 blades made from 52100, and 3 blades made from 1095-core san mai (15n20 jacket), and 6 made from 15n20/1095 damascus. I am sending out for heat treat, so I contacted Peter's and Byington (the two that I know of that give significant discounts for large batches) to ask whether these can be "batched" to save a ton of money. The answers I got were slightly contradictory, hoping someone can give me advice. Peter's said that all of these can be batched together without any problem, and the guy at Byington said that they'd use the heat treat protocol for 52100 and that the 1095 would probably "not be ideal". I didnt ask that guy about the 15n20 but assume, since its combined with the 1095 in the damascus, that the answer would be similar. Would it be a terrible idea to batch these? The 1095 blades are all culinary knives (steak knives and a chef knife). I'd usually hope for 60-61 rockwell but would be okay if they ended up slightly lower.
The advantage of batching would save me about a $130 at Peters, or $85 at Byington. If the rockwell test on the 1095 blades comes out unacceptable, they'd have to anneal them which is another couple hundred bucks and another batch charge for the second round of heat treat.
Thanks for any advice here!
 
I had the same thing with 3V and AEB-L. Peters prices based on how many times they have to run the big furnace at high austenizing temps. They don't seem to care if the two steels have to be tempered separately.
 
Okay so its more the tempering that varies, but you're implying that the heat treat/quench is roughly the same for 1095 and 52100? This is helpful to know.
 
If we assume that you want the lower temperature of say 1475F for austenizing your 52100. If you want to make bearings, do them separately. ;)
Daniel Swanson said:
Okay so its more the tempering that varies, but you're implying that the heat treat/quench is roughly the same for 1095 and 52100? This is helpful to know.
Click to expand...
 
Daniel Swanson said:
I have a batch of blades with 13 blades made from 52100, and 3 blades made from 1095-core san mai (15n20 jacket), and 6 made from 15n20/1095 damascus. I am sending out for heat treat, so I contacted Peter's and Byington (the two that I know of that give significant discounts for large batches) to ask whether these can be "batched" to save a ton of money. The answers I got were slightly contradictory, hoping someone can give me advice. Peter's said that all of these can be batched together without any problem, and the guy at Byington said that they'd use the heat treat protocol for 52100 and that the 1095 would probably "not be ideal". I didnt ask that guy about the 15n20 but assume, since its combined with the 1095 in the damascus, that the answer would be similar. Would it be a terrible idea to batch these? The 1095 blades are all culinary knives (steak knives and a chef knife). I'd usually hope for 60-61 rockwell but would be okay if they ended up slightly lower.
The advantage of batching would save me about a $130 at Peters, or $85 at Byington. If the rockwell test on the 1095 blades comes out unacceptable, they'd have to anneal them which is another couple hundred bucks and another batch charge for the second round of heat treat.
Thanks for any advice here!
Click to expand...
Peter's hardens their 52100 hot, 1575° then they use Cryo to fix the retained austentite. DO NOT batch 1095 with it, 1095 is not as forgiving when heated above 1500°
-Trey
 
Both 1095 and 52100 are optimally hardened at 1475-1500F and tempered around 400F so I don't see what the problem batching them is.

But if they are planning to run them at 1575F and cyro, it's really odd, would lose some toughness, but it would work.
 
I can’t tell you the specifics about how they hit target RC but I can say that I’ve used Peter’s for batches before and they all hit target RC even though the batches included different types of steel.
 
I’ve been to Peter’s shop and seen the fluidized furnace. I’m not sure, but there is probably a difference between what the thermocouple is reading and the temperature of the steel. Having seen their operation and speaking with Brad, I’m confident in heat treating.

Hoss
 
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