HT O-1 at home with a propane forge?

B

BallewBlade

Joined
Oct 10, 2011
Messages
713
Got some O-1 for free from work and was wondering if any of you could recommend some simple home heat treating, or if its even worth trying. I have a farriers forge,magnet, and a tank of canola oil. It's 1/8 thick O-1. This steel is old and is made by PRESCO (Precision-Marshall Steel Co.), is anyone familiar with this company, are they still around?:confused:
 
Your biggest issue is going to b decarb.You need to soak O1 for 10min a 1200f, then 10-15 min at 1475f, then quench in 120f canola oil.
 
With a propane forge: Do most of the grinding while soft. Leave the edge roughly the thickness of a dime. From there, I will heat slightly past non-magnetic and air cool to room temperature 3x. To harden, take the steel slightly past non-magnetic and remove from the forge until it cools to cherry red, then back into the forge. You can keep this up for a while, roughly 10 minutes then quench in canola heated to 140 deg F. Let cool to room temperature then I typically temper 3x at 405 deg F. Not the best recipe, but it has worked for me until I can get a heat treat oven.
 
I would strongly suggest you save the 01 until you have a HT oven, or other type of good heat control. The HT you describe will not allow the 01 to reach it's potential quality.
 
Go for it! The first knives I made were out of 1095 and 01. That was the time before I became "educumated" about the "proper" steel to start with. I made about a dozen knives and all turned out great. All went into the hands of hunters and/or outdoorsmen and as far as I know, all are doing a bang up job. One 4" 01 Hunter I made went to our friends brother and he told me once that was "the best damn knife I ever owned". He'd field dressed and skinned 3 hogs with it before needing to touch it up. This was the "back in the days" of my little one gallon paint can forge.

My recipe back then was a lot like Onies above. To normalize, I heated it up to non-magnetic then went one color change above and then let it air cool to black. The second time in I heated it up to just past non-magnetic then let it air cool to black.

For hardening I took it to one shade above non-magnetic and maintained that color in the forge for a few minutes, generally around 5 minutes. I then quenched the blades in 130-140 degree ATF. I cleaned up the decarb and tempered them at 2 - 2 hour cycles at 400.

By the way, I did all my heat treating after dark so I could see even the slightest color change.

Did I get the most from 1095 and 01, probably not. Did they make good knives, obviously so according to those who own them now. And you know what else? I had a blast making those knives and getting the feed back from the field! :)
 
Yeah I think I will just go for it and see what happens. If it turns out like crap then I will save the rest for when I get a HT oven.

Mudbug007 said:
Go for it! The first knives I made were out of 1095 and 01. That was the time before I became "educumated" about the "proper" steel to start with. I made about a dozen knives and all turned out great. All went into the hands of hunters and/or outdoorsmen and as far as I know, all are doing a bang up job. One 4" 01 Hunter I made went to our friends brother and he told me once that was "the best damn knife I ever owned". He'd field dressed and skinned 3 hogs with it before needing to touch it up. This was the "back in the days" of my little one gallon paint can forge.

My recipe back then was a lot like Onies above. To normalize, I heated it up to non-magnetic then went one color change above and then let it air cool to black. The second time in I heated it up to just past non-magnetic then let it air cool to black.

For hardening I took it to one shade above non-magnetic and maintained that color in the forge for a few minutes, generally around 5 minutes. I then quenched the blades in 130-140 degree ATF. I cleaned up the decarb and tempered them at 2 - 2 hour cycles at 400.

By the way, I did all my heat treating after dark so I could see even the slightest color change.

Did I get the most from 1095 and 01, probably not. Did they make good knives, obviously so according to those who own them now. And you know what else? I had a blast making those knives and getting the feed back from the field! :)
Click to expand...
 
At minimum, get a pyrometer from auberins. That way you can know your temperatures, and manually control the heat. I have found the pyrometer invaluable, and it has shown me how inaccurate judging temp by color can be.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top