How many SS blades per foil pack for HT?

L

LCoop

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May 5, 2007
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Ok I have done a search but all the threads seem really old and not relevant.

As the title says how many IDENTICAL .60 AEB-L kitchen blades unground can I wrap with foil and plate quench? Two or three? I'd love to hear how many the pros do.

I also have IDENTICAL .80 AEB-L kitchen knives to heat treat. How many of that thickness could I place in one foil wrap?
 
I'm not a pro, I put each blade in its own pouch. AEB-L warps enough for me as it is, and I would be afraid that asymmetrically cooling a blade might exacerbate the problem.
 
U can stack 3 of those
I do it all the time
If they are not too wide say like a paring knife and you have large enough quench plates, you can put them next to each other and still stack them. So you could get in of per pouch.
Don’t be cheap on the soak time though
 
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Ha, never read until now that you can stack. I did 1.2 and 1.5mm thick 420hc (1.4034) on weekend and packed them up single, the plates barely got warm after 3 of those and they were room temp in less then 15 sec. Interested in batching them up.
 
Also, I don't know how much you pay for foil in USA, but in Europe I couldn't find it under 27 €/ 1 m2 and that's expensive if you ask me (taking into consideration that you can have blades hardened for 8 Euro per piece in Germany).
 
FredyCro said:
Also, I don't know how much you pay for foil in USA, but in Europe I couldn't find it under 27 €/ 1 m2 and that's expensive if you ask me (taking into consideration that you can have blades hardened for 8 Euro per piece in Germany).
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If you buy a 50' roll, it comes out to about $18/m² for the type 309 foil over here. For small 3' pieces, the price is similar to the number you quoted.

Since stacking works for Harbeer, I'm going to give it a try next time I heat treat.
 
Hubert S. said:
If you buy a 50' roll, it comes out to about $18/m² for the type 309 foil over here. For small 3' pieces, the price is similar to the number you quoted.

Since stacking works for Harbeer, I'm going to give it a try next time I heat treat.
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Thats the price for large rolls here (7m), smaller is even more expensive. So almost twice the price then USA. Tell us how it went. Thanks.
 
If you do decide to stack large blades, be sure to give plenty of soak time. I just finished profiled only 9" chef blades by stacking 3 of them using Hoss's HT'ing recommendation of soaking at 1725°F for 20 minutes, then 10 minute soak at 1925°F and plate quenching, then overnight in LN. After tempering at 350F the blades are 63 Rc, 60 Rc, and 59 Rc. I think perhaps I didn't soak enough for the 3 blades stacked.

Today I plan to do a 12 hr anneal, then re-HT the 59 Rc blade.

The blades do need to be identical profile.
 
Ken H> said:
If you do decide to stack large blades, be sure to give plenty of soak time. I just finished profiled only 9" chef blades by stacking 3 of them using Hoss's HT'ing recommendation of soaking at 1725°F for 20 minutes, then 10 minute soak at 1925°F and plate quenching, then overnight in LN. After tempering at 350F the blades are 63 Rc, 60 Rc, and 59 Rc. I think perhaps I didn't soak enough for the 3 blades stacked.

Today I plan to do a 12 hr anneal, then re-HT the 59 Rc blade.

The blades do need to be identical profile.
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It's why I said earlier, don't be cheap on the soak time..

The blades don't need to be identical profiles. Again, I do it all the time even if they are not identical.
However you need to know that the different profiles cooling, can/likely cause bends which have to be dealt with.
That's a different problem...
 
HSC /// said:
Why just one?
Why wouldn’t you put in 3 or 6?
Foil may not be that expensive but it’s not cheap either. But more expensive is the furnace cycle time and one’s labor....
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I figure i spend about 93 cents per blade in foil, 309.

I have stacked coupons and expiernced noticbale more decarb, more air in the packet.

Warp!

Big one is I like my blanks to cool as fast as possible so I can get the them into cryo quickly.

Personal preference I guess, seems to me stacking blades in foil is cutting corners and leading to potentially more problems.
 
Fair enough, one persons cutting corners is another person’s efficiency gains. I ht about 45 blades in Jan/feb for inventory
That’s a lot of hours to do them one packet at a time.
 
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Not to derail thread but yet in the same light I watched a guy heat treat 5 blades clamped together. They were all the same profile. Is that ok?
 
Thanks for the replies. I've stacked three identical unbeveled paring knifes of .60 AEB-L and had perfect results accordingly to my Grizzly hardness tester which is dead nuts on with sample blocks. I've did the same and results varied. BUT wanting to save money the ones that came out low RH I left a lot of time on the table before DI treatment. I've read time between plate quenching and cold therapy is critical for lots of SS even if put in standard freezer till DI or chiro would help. I've got a batch of AEB-L to heat treat this weekend and just wanted to hear others thoughts on this. Thanks.
 
Side by side is ok, stacking is not. Especially likely to have issues with AEB-L
 
LCoop said:
Thanks for the replies. I've stacked three identical unbeveled paring knifes of .60 AEB-L and had perfect results accordingly to my Grizzly hardness tester which is dead nuts on with sample blocks. I've did the same and results varied. BUT wanting to save money the ones that came out low RH I left a lot of time on the table before DI treatment. I've read time between plate quenching and cold therapy is critical for lots of SS even if put in standard freezer till DI or chiro would help. I've got a batch of AEB-L to heat treat this weekend and just wanted to hear others thoughts on this. Thanks.
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I didn't quite get your post. It worked on some occasions and on the others it did not?
 
I'm sorry if my first post was confusing. I've did two batches with Identically stacked 3 blades per pack of unbeveled AEB-L knife blanks weeks apart. One stacked batch turned out dead nuts on for RH. So I know it's possible. The other was all over the place. The only difference between the two batches the one that was all over the place with RH results I had a delay between when they went into Cold Treatment. DI in my case. I've read that the delay or time between plate quench and cold treatment needs to happen relatively quick to have consistent results. I have another batch of AEB-L to heat treat this weekend. I'll see how this round goes but I plan on stacking 3 identical knife blanks to a foil pack. And not shorten the soak time. Thanks HSC
 
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Not shorten the soak time...yes you want to make sure you have adequate soak time. Meaning it takes longer for several pieces to get to temp vs one piece
What’s RH?
 
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