ht. 1080 problems

[Evan Miner]

Iv recently got my hands on some 1/8 inch 1080. I'm trying to make a 12 fillet knife with this. It tried a few ways to quench this material with minimal results. A little in site as to what iv tried. The first attempt was fully profiled and ground to spec I heated it in my forge to a fee shades above critical and quenched in warm oil (thermal fluid for industrial heat transfer systems) my results were a hardened edge but not hard enough to bend and return it stay bent after a little force was applied. So I tried this a few times thinking that maybe I didn't get the right temp to fully harden after a few more attempts I figured I wasn't cooling quick enough so I tried the same blade with a water quench. I got the fully hardened blade I wanted but with consequences the blade warped heavily. After straightening the blade I attempted it a second time this time I got a ping which I figured as it cracked. So I snapped the blade and examined the gain the gain was still nice and fine so I figure I have the temp right now I just have to get my quench speed right. So I profiled out a second blade but this time I didn't grind my bevels leaving it the full 1/8" stock in hopes it wouldn't warp only to find it warped worse then the first attempt. I snapped this one trying to straighten it right after quench. I took to long attempt 3 I did the same as the 2nd in process with the same results but this time I figured I'd temper it and work on straightens it then fail. Now I'm on here to see what I can do to fully harden this steel and minimize my warps. Any help would be grea. Thank you for your time.

 

[phorizt]

Canola oil seems to work fine for me. What I also found was my forge ht was WAY too hot and I didn't realize it. I was at close to 1800 degrees at what I thought was just a little over magnetic! Apparently I can't tell my reds and oranges apart very well.

 

[Patrickknives]

Because of the thinness of a fillet blade and the minimal amount of grinding and scale I would grind after heat treat, sharp belts medium speed and lots of water and you will avoid the warping issue. The time being spent on fixing warp will easyly be saved.

 

[Evan Miner]

My 2nd and 3rd attempts were going to be grinding post heat treat all I did was the rough profile to minimize that grinding no bevels

 

[1066vik]

are you trying to correct the warp straight from hardening, or are you doing your 2 temper cycles also?

 

[Evan Miner]

Did both one right after while it was still hot (around 500 degrees) and one after 2 cycles 2 hours long at 425

 

[gredpe3]

There are so many things that can go wrong while heat-treating.Read everything you can on the subject , and practice as much as possible.The physical act of doing it is fragile.Moving from the heating source into the quench has to go smoothly.