Knife heat treating service?

L

L. Uebelein

Joined
Aug 2, 2002
Messages
160
Is there any one out there that offers a salt bath heat treating service for carbon steels specifically 01? I might need to have a knife heat treated and I want it done using salt bath technology. All the Best!

-Leo
 
I run a digitally controlled, molten salt bath in my shop, and I am quite familiar with O1. :)

Unfortunately my thermocouple broke last night, but I have a new one on the way.

Are you looking for the blade to be austenitized in salt and quenched in oil, or austenitized in high temp salt and quenched in low temp salt?

-Nick-

http://www.wheelerknives.com
 
Austenitized in high temp and quenched in low temp from what I
heard,but since I know next to nothing about this sort of stuff Im not completely sure. I want the knife to have a good compromise of toughness and edge holding. Thanks and All the Best!

-Leo
 
I can recommend Nick wholeheartedly! (For fifty bucks (thanks Nick) I'd recommend George Bush for cheerleader!)

As an aside and not to hijack L's thread, how long a blade can you do Nick? Some day - really! - I'm going to have an 18" O1 blade to HT in salt (because of a grind I won't want to retouch) and I've been meaning to ask if you would/could do it. Doable?
 
I wish I could help Leo ;) These guys will surley give you a few more options...I'll look around too tomorrow.
 
Thanks Dave! :p

O1 is an excellent steel, and there are two guys in this thread now that would agree :)

Only thing I don't like is it rusts so darn easy.

I heat-treated 48 O1 blades this week-end! Yikes :eek:

Dave, my salt bath is 18" deep, so the longest blade I've done it it was 16" You don't HAVE to have the tang in there... but I prefer it to be.

One of these days I'll build a rig that can handle a sword.

Only problem I have encountered, is a good way to neautralize the salt after heat-treat. The salt leaves a very fine film on the steel, and if you don't get it off it will draw moisture and make the steel rust like nobody's business.

So I grind post heat-treat. The blades come out of the oil or low temp salt a nice pearly grey color, and CLEAN. But if you don't get that salt film off... man do they get ugly in a week or so.

I've tried to find an alternative to grinding the film off... so I could do some to finished dimensions pre-hardening... but haven't figured it out yet.

I think it may be the brand of heat-treating salt I'm using... but I don't know, they may all be that way.

Kevin or Mete could probably chime in on that aspect???

Thanks!
-Nick-
 
I had a salt bath that I used for case hardening a lot of years ago. To say the least it worked great. A 1020 file jig would get stone hard in about 1/2 hr.
Only problem was I think even the 2 X 4s and sheet rock rusted and we finally had to tear it down it got so bad but it was only about a 8' X 10' wood building so we weren't out much. We were smart enough to keep that bath out of the machine shop so we didn't have any problems there.
 
Brian,

Youve helped me out alot and I appreciate it Believe you me!

Nick,

As far as that salt film goes, can it be hand sanded off?

All the Best!

-Leo
 
Or could the salt film be bead blasted off? I really prefer to grind this blade before HT but if I have to do it afterwards I guess I will... Being so cheap, using up all those belts would kill me! :D Nick this one will have a hidden tang so heat treating that wouldn't be desireable anyway. If you're up to it let me know some time and maybe I'll just knock out the blade to get it done. Then I'll have it for whenever the notion strikes me to make the knife... ;) I've been "working" on this one for about 13 years... :rolleyes: That means the drawing has been hanging on my wall for that long. :D
 
I just looked up
salt bath heat treating services
on google and there are loads of places. Bet there not as afordable as Nick though! :p
 
Well, let's hope Nick doesn't do charity work... Hey Nick, how about some pics one of these days? We need a fix!
 
Dave-

Bead blasting the residue off is actually perfect (has been for me anyway). It will take the film off without much steel.

I realized my words above might have been misleading. I do 80-90% of my grinding before hardening... but do come in afterward and do some more.

Oh yea, Dave... send that sucker!!! :D

Nick Wheeler
1109 NW Mill St.
Winlock, WA 98596
 
NickWheeler said:
I think it may be the brand of heat-treating salt I'm using... but I don't know, they may all be that way.
Click to expand...

....still have my salt pots in progress...things have to age a little while in my shop...you know, like a fine Pinot Noir... :) What type of salts are you using for your high and low temp salt pots, if you don't mind me asking?

:)

-Darren
 
Hey Darren-

I'm using Houghton salts that I purchased from Carlisle. The low temp melts somewhere around 200F and has a working range up to about 700F. The high temp melts around 1100-1200F and has a working range up to about 1800F.

I wanted to buy Heat-Bath products... but we all know how that goes. I REALLY did not need a 400lb. barrel of salt.

I'd like to know if the Heatbath products have the same affect on steel.

I did finally manage to get ahold of quench oil from HeatBath and it is the cats meow... so maybe their salt is too ???

-Nick-
 
Hi Nick, thanks for that info...much appreciated! Maybe Kevin will drop in and give us the heads up on the Heat-Bath salts. I finally got some AAA and Parks 50 too, and agree, they are the real deal...

:)

-Darren
 
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