help, anylize what im doing wrong

I read a lot of good thoughts in this thread! Makers are becoming more knowledgable all the time, I congradualte you!

The fracture does look like the steel was overheated, but without watching everything you did it is hard know exactly what happened. One thing that concerns me is the dark bands in the steel, something different in these places, maybe.

I would try another blade, keep your heat down to where the slag comes off of the blade in fine flakes, rather than sheets. Check your temp with a magnet on the way up and you will have an indicator as to your heat.

Obvously another problem comes from using unknown steel, but if iti is all the same you can figure it out in time.
Good Luck!
 
ron, yea, iv been revisiting some welding books that have extensive info on metallurgy, and ill be looking for more next time i have a barns&noble night with my girlfriend.
me2, i have been quenching vertical, just holding it sideways in that pic to show the interrupt in quench.
Christof, im so confused! i thought blacksmiths were supposed to hang them so the luck spills out on the forge and anvil! this may have been my problem all along. i will be researching the proper orientation, unless anyone else knows what i should do :):):)
seriously though, i would like to get an idea of the temps it runs at. when i have the money... i bet it is too hot even when i have it throttled back so it barely runs. and then i cant tell if the atmosphere is neutral or not. probably oxidizing judging by the scale, but i usually have the air vent on the blower closed... i dont know.
J.S. Carter , been using the kitchen oven at about 400 give or take. thanks.

i am confused now because i did some break tests on 5160 that dont seem congruent with anything we have discussed... i did two pieces, one i forged really hot, and kept working all the way to a black heat (trying to abuse it), then heated way hotter than critical, and quenched in cold oil, no normalizing or annealing, expecting huge ugly grain. it was the finest grain i have ever seen... the other piece i forged hot, slowly, and normalized three times and annealed. i will be heating to critical and quenching in hot oil today, to compare grain size... i dont know what to expect...
-Lou
 
Not that I'm really GOOD on any of this, but it's my understanding that cold oil will lengthen the time of the quench cooling excessively and result in what's probably fine pearlite.

But I could be COMPLETELY wrong.

Maybe later this week or early next week I can go over and we cna play with temperature controls in the forge. I'll look up what I know about reducing atmospheres in gas forges, too.

Be fun to hang out and get 3 or 4 blades forged out, too.
 
interesting, could be. i just cant get the 5160 to have bad grain no matter what i do to it, so i dunno. i guess i should be spending that time trying to get the 1080 to have smaller grain :) or just give up and keep using 5160:p
yea, shoot me an e-mail, and we can see when i'll be free. starting work at boot barn thursday, not sure about the weekend.
-Lou
 
L.K.Smithy said:
i wanted to use something that will show an edge quench line
Click to expand...

I like the shape of those knives you've got going there.

Are you trying to get a 'hamon' ? If so, I would get used to forging thick and grinding down, try leaving the edge as thick as a dime.
 
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