heat treat results.....so far

jdm61

jdm61

itinerant metal pounder
Joined
Aug 12, 2005
Messages
47,357
Aaaarrrrrggggghhhhh!!!!!!!! I heat treated 2 W2 blades today using furnace cemnt. One warped. so I have to do it over. Not sure if the ther one worked or not. tested it with a file and saw silver, but it didn't make a grrove. results to follow,
 
Joe, you can easily staighten a warped blade right out of the quench while it's still warm, you have a few min.s to do this before you stand a chance of cracking. Also, if you don't like the hamon, do it again. I've quenched blades up to 3 or 4 times until I got what I wanted. Good luck!
 
tried to straighten....ended up with a slight S curve:grumpy: hardening clearly did not take. i did a quick etch and the only place I had a hamon on the good one was right on the tip. the file left a nick in the edge. that clay leaves more of a mess than fire scale.....lol. too much clay, tried to do interrupted quench, new oil, etc etc. gonna do an edge quench with no coating of any kind tomorrow on the straight balde and heat up the bent blade and straighten iot and then renormalize and re-heat treat. looking at the pics of that dagger that Burt Foster made and the TINY strips of clay he used tells me that I used WAY too much and the heat crept back down into the edge. I would gues that the interrupted quench didn't work all that well since the blade burst into flames when i took it out after 5 or 6 seconds....lol
 
Thin clay coat is the trick Joe and you need to soak for a few min.s so the steel is up to temp under the clay (but don't over heat) I also don't do an interrupted quench with oil, I leave it in the oil for 10 - 15 seconds then pull out and scrape the clay off. It takes practice man :)
 
i'm able to run my forge pretty cool using a small burner, but I also used the non-scale and it stuck to the tip so that tells me the tip was at 1600 or more. gota be mo' careful. the heat clearly crept back down to the edge where the clay was real thick. Don...do you have a picture of one of your blades coated and ready for quenching?
 
Thanks, Don.......I had WAY too much clay on the blade and it was MUCH too close to the edge. That, combined with the attempt to do the interrupted quench did me in i'm sure.
 
Thanks for keeping us posted on this,Joe. I plan to order some W2 from Don soon and you are saving me the same learning process. I'de like to see the hamon when you get'er treated!

BTW: It's Christmas!!! Best wishes to ya!!!!

Randy,Deweyknives
 
A couple of W2 blades with Hamon.

Merry Christmas all,
 

Attachments

  • small-fighter-close-up-blad.jpg
    small-fighter-close-up-blad.jpg
    26 KB · Views: 55
  • wcblade05.jpg
    wcblade05.jpg
    46.1 KB · Views: 57
Also,Joe, I think you left it in a bit long for an interrupted quench. I don't do that very often,but I go...In,1,2,3...Out 1,2,3, Back in till cool. As you found out, water or brine is best for an interrupted quench - the oil will burst into flames.
Stacy
 
Thanks, Stacy
I think that I may have experienced something I read about on here that supposedly can happen with fast oil. It will get down below the nose of the curve and then stall a bit. The oil should not have burst into flames at 400 or lower, so it had to be a lot hotter and the heat crept back into the edge and softened it up. The tip on one of the blades clearly got somewhat hard...you could see a distinct hamon after a quick etch, but the harded zone was VERY narrow and only went back about 1/3 of the lenght of the cutting edge. I think I had better not mess with interupted quenches with W2 as it needs to quench pretty fast. I am definately not at a place where i am comfy tryng it with water or brine.
 
I did the 6 inch W2 fighter again today. It seemed to work ok, I put an edge of sorts on it. It shaved, cut paper and chopped wood without dulling out,deforming or chipping. It aint pretty yet but it appears to work...whew!!! And NO, no pictures until i hand sand away the side effects of putting an edge on it...finished product only!!!lol:D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top