Heat Treatment of L6

SamuraiDave

SamuraiDave

Joined
Apr 6, 2001
Messages
2,632
I have read through several searches and all I can find is that "you can do this one at home". But I dont know what that is exactly. Is it something similar to the 5160 in Wayne Goddard's $50 Knife shop? Mainly just start experimenting and taking notes to find out what works for you?

I ordered a batch that is pretty thin ~.07" and plan on making some kitchen knives and other of the sorts with it via stock removal. These will be my first knives from scratch and I would like to attempt to heat treat them in my 1 brick forge. And temper them in my cheapo toster oven.

Another thing that I would like to know is if I can anneal L6 in a ammo can filled with ashes. I hear about "vermaculite" but have yet to find out what exactly that is or where to order it. The L6 is from bandsaws and is not in an annealed state and I am going to need to do that before shaping it.

Thanks,
-Dave

Edited to say that it is .07" thick not .7"... that would be a hyell of a kitchen knife!
 
Annealing ,1400-1450F, Forging 1800-2000F, Hardening ,1450-1550F.....I hope you mean .070 rather than .7" for stock removal !.....You can use ashes instead of vermiculite ,anything that doesn't conduct heat well so the cooling rate is slow....Heat it to nonmagnetic, hold it there for a few minutes then into the ashes....To harden heat to magnetic, holod for a few minutes, quench in oil , immediately temper at 400F for at least 1 hour.
 
Mete ment to say 'to harden heat to NON-magnetic, hold and quench'.

Be sure to use a oven thermometer for regulating the tempering oven.

RL
 
Vermiculite is "Mica" that has been heated until it pops like popcorn! :eek:
and is a garden additive. It can be purchased at any garden supply place....like Wallyworld !

Don't worry,it's cheap ! :p
 
l-6 is an air hardening steel it needs to be annealed in a 13-hour cycle. Just heating the piece and allowing it to cool in vermiculite or wood ashes or sand won't do it. Also the proper temp. for heat treating l-6 is 1500-1550 and quench in moving air or oil.
del
 
Thanks alot guys!

Dan,
I got my Bandsaw steel yesterday! Towards the end of this week I can start in on something, just a few Finals left between now and then!
 
This steel can really be taken to task, check out our flex tests on our website.

All of our L6 blades are worked in the rolled state as it arrives from the supplier. However most tool steels are easily annealed. All L6 blades are annealed immediately prior to heat treatment.

1. Pre-wrap: some blades are first wrapped with stainless steel foil to prevent oxides from forming during the next steps.

2. Pre-heat: 1200 deg. F.

3. Austenitize: 1450-1550 deg. F. hold for 15-30 mins.

4. Quench: In oil, either a clay fire technique, edge quench, or soft back draw is employed.

5. Temper: 350-1000 deg. F.

6. Resulting Hardness 45-62Rc



Annealing

1. Heating: Heat slowly to 1450-1475 deg.F.

2. Soak: Soak for fifteen minutes at temp.

3. Cooling: Furnace cool.
 
You mention it's bandsaw blade steel, do you know for sure (from talking to the manufacturer) that it's actually L6? There are several types of sawblade steels, L6 is just one of the possible alloys.
 
Guy,
I got this stuff from Dan Grey and his sale in the Exchange.

My plan right now is to cut it into strips with a hacksaw and anneal the strips in my 2 brick forge the best I can and the plan is to start working on smaller blades first. (The forge will be powered by a mapp gas torch donated to me by my girlfriend 'the art major' who was in a metal sculpture class this semester and currently has no more use for it.)

It will take me awhile to get it down right, but this is a learning process. You guys have no idea how excited I am about all this. Although I must stay on task and study, I am done with college Saturday... I cant give up now!
 
Howard Clark has a DVD available showing attempts at destruction of one of his blades. L6 is VERY tough steel.
 
I thought I reply to this this morning :confused: I must have pushed that wrong thing again :grumpy:
SamuraiDave said:
Thanks alot guys!

Dan,
I got my Bandsaw steel yesterday! Towards the end of this week I can start in on something, just a few Finals left between now and then!
Click to expand...

have at it dave and have fun :)

Guy Thomas said:
You mention it's bandsaw blade steel, do you know for sure (from talking to the manufacturer) that it's actually L6? There are several types of sawblade steels, L6 is just one of the possible alloys.
Click to expand...

guy as sure as the paint on the ends of stock bars and said to be as when any of us buy steel.
I've wondered about steels I've bought before when it acted a bit funny and questioned the steel as to the way it's was marked .. :confused: so as sure as I can be. it's L6

I use it and it works great :)
 
Dan's stuff sure acts like L-6 when I try to cut it and drill it. :D I even made me a little shop and leather-cutting knife (kept from burning the steel) that I didn't even heat-treat that works pretty darn well. It's even got a fancy duct tape handle.
 
Burchtree said:
Dan's stuff sure acts like L-6 when I try to cut it and drill it. :D I even made me a little shop and leather-cutting knife (kept from burning the steel) that I didn't even heat-treat that works pretty darn well. It's even got a fancy duct tape handle.
Click to expand...

you must have used some of the duck tape I sent for free
on the package right :D
 
There are a few versions of L6 out there. Some is pretty tame, some is like O1, some is real extreme. I work mostly with the extreme (Crucible). To anneal that stuff, the best thing to do is forget wood ash and vermiculite and go right to spheroidizing type treatments.

Delbert probably saw my demo at Ashokan one year, when I took a bar of 1095 and a bar of L6 and autenitized them both and stuffed them in wood ashes. In the second half of the demo (around 8 hours later) I put them both in a vice and gave a pull. The 1095 went all the way around, the L6 got to around 40 degress and snapped like glass. It was fully hard.

L6 is designated an oil hardening alloy, and that is how it should be hardened, but the Crucible alloy, I consistently get HRC 61 on 1/2" thick chunks that were forged and then just threw on the floor.

Heat treating:

Crucible L6 (champalloy)- (From Crucible data sheet)

Annealing
Heat to 1375/1425F(745/775C), hold two hours, cool slowly, 50F(30C) per hour maximum, to below 1100F(540C), then air cool.

hardening- High Heat: 1500/1550F(815/845C), hold 10/30 minutes at temperature.
Quench: Quench in oil to hand warm, 150F(65C). For minimum distortion, parts may be removed from oil at about 400F(205 C), and air?cooled to hand warm.
Temper: 350/600F(175/315C); hold one hour per inch of thickness, two hours minimum, four hours preferred.

I temper in a range from 400F to 450F. and rarely drop below 57 HRC. The moly will let this stuff hold is hardness at relatively high temperatures.


Carpenter L6 (R.D.S) - (From Carpenter matched tool and die steels booklet)

Annealing- Heat to 1400/1450F and cool at a rate no more thatn 20 degrees per hour.

Hardening- Heat to 1500/1550F and quench in 120F. oil.

Tempering - 375F-400F for 59-57HRC


Hope this helps
 
I have a stack of band saw blade steel all about 3/32 inch thick.
Very hard to cut with a bandsaw unless annealed.
Hard to drill to.
I cut my blanks out with a 4 1/32 inch angle grinder from Harbor freight At $9-$1900.
Also have 1/16 inch thick wheels for $6.97 per 10.
Anneal at 1450 1500 or nonmagnetic.
You might let it cool in the forge.
I know how much a person wants to hurry up and get a knife done. You can do the techy stuff later.
Quench at 1500 or non magnetic and temper back at 375-400.
A file should skate pretty well when drawn accross the edge.
This should get you close. Change things as you learn.
Enjoy
TJ
 
thanks Kevin
I get different size blades so I now need to check each one, :grumpy: :)
I will say I didn't know about the different grades of L6
do you know the % of alloys in the ones you've listed?
 
Crucible (champalloy)

Typical Chemistry
Carbon 0.75%
Manganese 0.70%
Silicon 0.25%
Chromium 0.80%
Nickel 1.50%
Molybdenum 0.30%

Carpenter (RDS)

Carbon .70%
Manganese .35%
Silicon .25%
Chromium 1.0%
Nickel 1.75%
 
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