heat-treat screwup - fixable?

[daizee]

*sigh* Last night I dropped a hot A2 blade on the concrete floor. I pulled it from the packet and was letting it air-cool and lost control of it after it had cooled down a bit - most of the color was out of it.

There was no *obvious* horrible damage as the steel was no longer super soft. I put it in the tempering oven to de-stress it a bit, but clearly I can't trust that it's not full of weird shocked structures.

Question is: Do you think I can re-heat-treat it from cold with ramps & holds & soak and come out with a reliable blade at the other end?

No discussion of how to not drop (plate quench etc.) it is necessary, thanks, I've beaten myself up plenty for pulling a stupid already.

Thanks for your help.

-Daizee

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

I doubt it needs anything done if there is no obvious damage. At that temp it was still austentitic.

A second HT is not going to hurt the blade, but I seriously doubt there is any need for one.

 

[daizee]

I doubt it needs anything done if there is no obvious damage. At that temp it was still austentitic.

A second HT is not going to hurt the blade, but I seriously doubt there is any need for one.

Ok, thanks, Stacy.
I'm gonna re-cook it anyway for my own peace of mind, but I'll do so with greater confidence now.

 

[javand]

It either cracked or it didn't, IMHO. If it did, re-hardening wont help, if it didn't, it wont either.

I dropped a 1084 blade into the quench tank twice in a row the other day. Swam upto my neck literally in quenchant trying to retrieve it, before I realized the tank was too deep to get out without tongs. Fished it out with slippery tongs, slipped and dropped it back in. I figure, if that didn't break it, it's good, so I tempered it. Cursory clean up didn't reveal a crack, so hopefully it's good.

It was a meaty 1/8th, with only mildly forged bevels, so I'm not too worried.

 

[Don Hanson III]

It's fine.

Heat treating it again wont fix anything.