Help me understand this statement.

O.K tell me if this is the right conclusion. Low oxygen fire will actually add carbon to the surface of the steel, if kept below the burning point, but carbon content added to the surface has no real benefit to the steel unless it is folded and worked though out as when damascus is being made, but will the carbon content on the surface need to be removed before a good clean weld can be achieved. if so then the carbon in the fire really has no benefit to the steel unless it is allowed to soak in the fire for several hours to the point that the carbon will migrate though out the inner parts of the steel.
In short a blacksmith or bladesmith in the forging or welding process( as short as they are) really gains no benefit from the carbon in the fire, sense it is all surface related and will consequently be remove by sanding or grinding in the finished product. Is this how you guys see it?

Bill ????
 
Case hardening benefits a low carbon steel if near net shape forging is done otherswise as stated it is just ground off. If you fold the blank the carbon content is also increased faster inside.

In carburizing the higher the temp the faster the diffusion, carbon content on the surface depends on how much carbon your conditions drive into the steel.

From some texts I understood that japanese smiths use this to harden the edge only.

There seem to be a lot of factors involved and apparently you have to get into some serious metallurgy and some_trial_and_especially_error. Then again it has been quite successfully used for quite a while.

TLM
 
There is a great book which touches on this subject. The Art of Blacksmithing by Alex Bealer. It even has pics in it.:D dlee
 
Bill B,

Yeh, you said it. Basicly any amount of carbon that you can add in your forge, in turn you lose in the form of scale as soon as you take your steel out of the fire. As I said earlier you can only move carbon at the rate of .020 inches per hour at 1850 F.. So in the short amount of time that a knife maker has his steel in the fire you will see no real gain.


Bill B????
 
The depth I found is about double and the diffusion "constant" is a function of alloy content and carbon content and strongly of temp, no easy answer for this one.

I still don't disagree that case hardening propably has little practical meaning unless you do it for decorative purposes (coloured).

TLM
 
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