HT in a box with charcoal?

N

Nylunds knives

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Jan 6, 2008
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I read somewhere about a maker who put his blades in a pipe filled with charcoal to protect his blades when heat treating in a electric kiln.

Have anybody here actually tried this?

I was thinking of putting a square 4" wide box filled with charcoal into my 120 Litre HT oven and heat treat about 10 blades at a time.

Will it work or will I ruin my blades and my oven?



Regards Jakob
 
Two things come to mind.

Packing things in sealed containers then raising the temperature without a means for the inside air to vent makes for explosive results.

It is normal to wrap knives in foil packets with a little sacraficial burlap or charcoal to remove the oxegen and the flex in the foil prevents explosive results.

George
 
george tichbourne said:
Two things come to mind.

Packing things in sealed containers then raising the temperature without a means for the inside air to vent makes for explosive results.

It is normal to wrap knives in foil packets with a little sacraficial burlap or charcoal to remove the oxegen and the flex in the foil prevents explosive results.

George
Click to expand...

I don't think the box has to be all sealed and I could make an exhaust pipe from the box. I think the charcoal will burn away oxygen and prevent decarb even if the box isn't totally sealed.

I would use this for oil quenching steels and doing multiple blades at a time.

I'm not sure it will work but I've heard about something similar...
 
This sounds dumb to me. I can think of all sorts of problems, one being a fire burning around your blades. If you are doing carbon blades in a HT oven, just coat them with Turco or Satanite, and quench them one at a time. The oven should rebound about the same rate you are ready for the next blade. If you are doing oil quench stainless, you don't need to do anything but spray the blades in the packet with WD-40.Put the blades in packets of five together - Pull a packet, slit the end, and quench the blades 1-2-3-4-5..... If you are quick about it they should be fine.
Stacy
 
I'm not sure but I think you may be talking about case hardening. If I understand correctly it is more for coloring than hardening. Gunsmith's put gun parts in a crucible with charcoal, bone & other things to achieve the colors of the old case hardened guns. I may be wrong but I don't think it will work for knives for several reasons. That much charcoal in an unsealed container is gonna make a lot of smoke in an oven and is not good for the oven. Also I think you will lose to much heat before you get your blades out and into the quench. If you want to minimize scale on carbon steels just apply a light satanite "wash" which is a thin coat of satanite that is mixed fairly thin. You may still get a little decarb but it will reduce it quite a bit. Hope this helps.
 
Yeah... I guess it's a pretty bad Idea...

I think I will send away my SS blades until I can figure out a way of heat treating them more efficient myself.


Regards Jakob
 
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