just making sure i didn't mess up my heat treat

C

clockworkfish

Joined
Dec 1, 2010
Messages
161
Hey so i just quenched and tempered a new blade, everything went well, no cracks or warps and ill post pictures when its done. However, my container for quenchant only holds about 6 inches worth of oil. The piece that i quenched was about 9 inches total length with 5 of that being blade. So i stuck the blade in and let the whole thing cool. Im assuming this will not cause any issue with the strength of the blade but just wanted to check. Seems like a differential hardening if anything.

it should also be noted that after the blade was at an appropriate temp i quenched the handle too, but it was already at a black heat

Steel was 1080+ from aks
quenchent was warm canola
austentized at 1560 +/- 15degrees F
tempered at 420 for 2 hours twice.
 
Well, the blade is probably fine......BUT:

1560F +/- 15F is too high for 1080. It should be 1500F. I doubt that anything really bad happened at 1560, though.

Get two gallons of canola, and a metal container that will hold them. The quench is where a knife shaped piece of metal becomes a knife.....why try and save a buck here? The two gallons of oil should last for many knives.

Your handle is pearlite and the blade is martensite. That is OK, but all martensite would be better. Finish this one and get more oil for the next.
 
Its 1080+ though according to ask the range for it is 1545 to 1615.

And yea I definitely need a new quenchent holder. I had been using this one for folders and it worked great. This was my first fixed in a while so I didn't think about it. Also I'm looking to move soon and when I do I'll get propper quenchent as well as some other stuff.

Regardless thanks!
 
I see the numbers they post, but it just seems high to me. Since there is no extra carbon for chromium and vanadium carbides, I don't see why there is a need for such higher heat to put them into solution. It is probably just something that I don't know about this particular steel. Aldo's 1084 is similar and the HT is 1500F.
 
odd, also i dont know what this is about, but it looks bubbly around the edge, which is weird and ive not seen that before when working with this steel. looks kinda like how a hamon would be but no line, only lots of dots. i plunged the blade straight down into the quenchent so it wouldnt be anything like an edge quench. Any idea what this may be?
 
I get that too with 1080, not sure what it is though. I harden at 1500 and quench in brownells oil.
 
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