Ht 9260 5160

[fastcamo]

I've almost 100% just used 01 with the salt bath and quench method for a while now, and want to move to larger blades using 5160, the size i want is in 9260, do these heat treat the same, I know what all the numbers stand for, but just want to make sure they are at least close.

Also would the salt pots be a benefit for those steels, or be worse off for the 60 series? or whats the best ways you have found for HT for that type of steel.

thanks.

 

[Kevin R. Cashen]

The numbers to look at for alloying and how fast they need to be quenched are the first two, the second two numbers are only the carbon content. Thus 5160 and 9260 are not in the same series of alloys, but just happen to have the same carbon content. 5160 has a chromium boost to help it in hardening so it will work fine in salts. 9260 is also a spring steel but relies in silicon for its properties and could get a slight boost from the manganese, however with right around a 1 second span to the pearlite nose on the I-T diagram (for contrast 5160 has almost 5 seconds) it may be borderline whether you could harden the stuff in low temp salts.

You can still use the high temp salts and quench into oil however, this is what I do whenever I am in doubt. Doing this will sacrifice very little of the benefits of the salts since it is the high temp that is the sweetest to use.

Soaking temp for 5160 is 1525F while the soak temp for 9260 is 1600F.