How quick to quench AEB-L

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matthewhoffman

Joined
Nov 19, 2016
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Hoping for some advice about AEB-L. Alpha's website says to plate quench "as quickly as possible." That's easy enough with one blade, but what happens when you have three or four in the oven? It takes a certain bit of time to get them all on the aluminum. Will that time lag impair hardness? Thanks for your help!
 
If you have multiple blades in the oven you should be pulling one and quenching it while leaving the others in it and allowing them to stabilize at your set temperature before pulling the next. How fast you get from blade 1 to blade 4 matters very little.
 
How long does it usually take for the blades to quench in between the plates? I’ve read 2mins, but am not sure. Would it be a good idea to splash some water on the plates to cool them down prior to putting the next blade in? Or would it take longer for the oven to get back up to temp? Of course you’d wipe any moisture off the plates before putting a blade in.
 
When doing multiple blades it's wise to have a couple sets of plates. I frequently do multiples and as Kurakai stated being in a hurry is not a big factor. I have a bucket with ice water to cool my plates between quenches and they don't get overly hot and I use forced air to cool between the plates also. Once you get a rhythm it moves along at a good pace.
 
Good question. I have multiple plates. I had a couple buddies that that I had constantly looking for atleast 1" thick flat aluminum in scrap etc. so I didn't pay a dime for any aluminum. But after soak time I bring all blades usually 5 at a time and place them on a alum plates previously laid on my concrete floor. I immediately place the other plates on top and step down on each one rotating between them. I figure it's air cooled steel anyhow so I'm just hurrying up the process. After about 2 minutes I can comfortably cut off the foil wraps and they hit a DI slurry. It seems to work for me as I have a RC hardness tester and they all come out fine.

If I'm HT'ing more than five by the time the next batch has soaked I've already water cooled my alum plates, dried them off and back on the concrete floor ready for the next round!
 
So, in my case, I have two sets of plates. I can do two wrapped knives on each plate, a total of four. If I have 8 wrapped blades in the kiln, I should plate cool 4 and bring the other 4 in the kiln back up to temp before pulling and cooling, is this correct.
 
golfer1 said:
So, in my case, I have two sets of plates. I can do two wrapped knives on each plate, a total of four. If I have 8 wrapped blades in the kiln, I should plate cool 4 and bring the other 4 in the kiln back up to temp before pulling and cooling, is this correct.
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Yes that will work....over soak is not the issue under soak can be. They should come up to austinizing temp quickly since they were already there initially. I usually remove the first five and close the door quickly and allow the other 5 to ramp back up and by that time the first set is quenched and moved aside move on to the next set with cool plates and chill the first set of plates to be ready for the next 5.
 
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