Help on home heat-treat of L-6

I got my little peiece of steel from Tbark yesterday and it is L-6. I started grinding it right away on my 30 grit bench grinder wheel and I noticed right away that it is WAY easier to work than D-2, and it throws tons more sparks than the D-2 I've worked with. The D-2 I've used was very hard to grind, and this L-6 just melts away! Awesome! Anyway, it shouldn't be too long before I have the thing fully ground. I know the basic essentials of heat-treating steels, like leaving the edge thick to prevent warping, etc. What I need to know is can I oil-quench this steel to develop a nice differential temper and visible temper line? IF so, do I use a torch (will propane work?) to take it to non-magnetic, then quench the edge? Also, is there a benefit to multiple cycles of heating to non-magnetic and quenching? If so, how many times should I do this? When it is time to temper, what ytemperature should I use? I'll be using a kitchen oven, so consistency of the temp won't be too good, but it's all I have to work with (I don't cook at my apartment, so I'll use the oven there!). Any other tips will be much appreciated....

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mikeS

Joined
Apr 7, 1999
Messages
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Chiro, you should be able to get the blade hot enough with a propane toch if you build a bean-o-matic type forge or something else to hold the heat, firebrick ,or a steel heat trapper. Just holding passing the torch over the blade (unless it is very small) will be hard to get an even heat. The bean-o-matic, forge is a large coffe can or somthing of the size lined with Kao-wool.Rob Gunter suggests the Kao-wool be coated with waterglass to prevent small silica particles in your breathing zone.

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If winners never quit and quitters never win. What fool said quit while you're ahead?
 
Buy an oven thermometer, available at your local grocery store, don't rely on the oven settings only when tempering and heat your quenching medium (any vegetable oil will do in a pinch, i.e. olive oil, etc.) to around 140 degrees. As mikeS says it is important to build some kind of enclosure to help hold the
heat around the blade, if possible use two propane torches to heat both sides of the blade at the same time. This will give you a more even heat but watch the tip, don't let it get too hot! Even though you're going to use a magnet to check for critical it will help if the lighting is a bit on the dim side in order to help you judge how hot the steel is getting. (My first attempt I had the garage door open behind me on a very bright day, I thought that steel would never heat up until I closed the door some and the steel was glowing a nice bright orange!)-Guy T.
 
Agreed, check out his new L-6 katana:

<img src = "http://mvforge.com/images/shobuL6.1.jpg">

Howard turns the L-6 body into banite, pretty much the ultimate in indestructibility.
 
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