Heat treating L-6?

B

Baron Necrotech

Joined
Jan 26, 2005
Messages
13
While working with a blade i'm working on made out of L-6 a thought popped into my head: Given how tough and hard the stuff is do you have to heat treat it at all?
 
ABSOLUTELY !! You will not get even close to proper performance without heat treating L-6 or any other blade steel.
 
Now I know a lot of you are thinking “hey this guys a idiot for asking that question” however I assure you I am not. I am quite aware of the various reasons for heat treating however this particular piece of metal is giving me reason to pause.

Note that “L-6" is a educated guess as to type, it’s from a old hand saw blade about 100 years or sold old, the type that was held in place on a wooden frame with a tension crank.

It was quite pitted and rusted, however it is also pretty thick so I was able to remove some surface layers to get past the pits. This proved pointless as the metal will not take a decent polish there being small bubbles here and there in the metal.

The metal is VERY hard to work, I have gone through a lot of belts and it took a grinding wheel down about two inches before I was done. Files are almost useless.

There may have been work hardening while I was crafting it, I’m not quite sure.

However, when thinking of applying a heat treat I thought of why heat treats are applied: To change the properties of the metal. For the life of me I can’t think of why I’d want to. It’s very tough, very flexible and hard as fricking hell. The only quality about it I didn’t know was it’s ability to hold an edge. Ti fid out I made a small finger knife out of a scrap so I could test it’s ability to hold an edge without a heat treat and it’s just fine. The main problem seems to be getting a edge on it in the first place, it’s VERY hard. However after the edge is in place it holds very well.

To summarize, not only can I not think of a reason to heat treat this blade, I’m actually afraid to lest I ruin its current properties which I cannot find fault with.
 
Your first post was mis-stated. What you have is already heat treated.I f you can grind it to shape you wouldn't have to RE heat treat.Years ago I picked up an old kukri. When I used it I found it to be very soft and very easy to bend .That would be like an unhardened blade. I got a better one !
 
OK i get what you are saying:

If the base material is already properly treated (saw blades, chisle blades, ect) to have acceptable properties then as long as the proccess does not change it in a undesirable manner then no treatment is needed?
 
Yes.But understand that poor grinding techniques can change [heat treat a blade].
 
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