Heat Treating 1095 in a forge

[E063373]

I am new to heat treating and have always outsourced heat treating. I bought a forge and tried my hand at heating treating some 1095 and 5160 knives.

They turned out too soft.

So a few questions:
Will re-tempering help (I tempered two times at 375F for two hours) or do I need to redo the entire process?

If I redo the entire process do I need to normalize first or can I just go straight to hardening.

The first time I normalized targeting 1550 to 1575 and hardened the 1095 at 1450 and the 5160 at 1500-1525

 

[polish avenger]

Your query really ought to be asked in Shop Talk for the best responses.
I would begin by asking you how you know you were working at those temperatures for your full soak times? My next questions would pertain to your quench media, your clean-up method and your hardness testing.

 

[Karl B. Andersen]

Your query really ought to be asked in Shop Talk for the best responses.
I would begin by asking you how you know you were working at those temperatures for your full soak times? My next questions would pertain to your quench media, your clean-up method and your hardness testing.

All good questions.

 

[E063373]

Is there a way to move the tread to "shop talk"? I am new.

The second time I went through the process I put a 2.5" diameter, 1/4" wall, 10.5" long pipe inside the forge centered between the two burners. I drilled a hole in the forge and through the center of the pipe and ran a K type thermocouple so the tip was in the center of the pipe. So I watched the temp via a thermocouple but I am not sure how accurate it is. I also have a IR gun and watch the temp with it but it usually read lower.

Soak times once at a semi-steady temp were a minimum of 5 minutes and up to 10 min.

I quenched in parks 50 for about 10 seconds and then went straight to 1" thick AL plates in a vice to prevent warping.

I used anti scale powder and cleaned up with a wire brush and water.

Hardness testing was done with a set of hardness files.

 

[seanj]

A moderator can move your thread. Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith should be able to do so.

I've had mixed success myself with 1095 in a forge. I have one knife that turned out so so. As I found out myself 1095 needs precise temperature control. I've only had success with 1084 and 1075 with a forge. Hopefully Stacy sees this shortly and then others should be able to help more.