Heat treating stainless

[dalr753]

hey guys i was wondering if you could help out with my first attempt at making a stainless steel knife. i heard that 440c was a good starter but that it had to be held at 1900 degrees F for a while. I use a home made forge so i dont know how to tell when its at that temp. also when i looked on amazon for temp guns the best one i could find only went up to 1800 deg F. could you tell me some of the things i need to know about heat treating stainless and how i figure out the temperature.

ps i dont need to make a perfect one, just something workable.

 

[SBuzek]

440-C needs to be wrapped in SS foil and done in a kiln.Not really possible to do it in a forge.Send it to TKS and have them do it.
Stan

 

[SteelSlaver]

Ditto,The reason for the foil is it keeps the oxygen away from the steel. At that kind of temps for that long the decarb would be very extreme. It would be very difficult to get a forge to hold 1900 for the 1/2 hour or so that the 440c would need not to mention the atmosphere in the forge. 440C would only be a good starter for stock reduction knives that you sent out to HT.

The way you figure out the temp is get a good electric HT oven with a PID controller. If you do it in a forge it won't be workable, it will be ruined.