lines or cracks after heat treat?

I appreciate the input gentleman..And Chuck I really appreciate your offer and if you give me a few days I will take you up on it and send you a blade and some of the stock it was cut from..I will send Jeff Mutz at tru grit these photos and see what he says..Is your info on your website Chuck?
 
It just occurred to me that thees are actually from 2 different pieces of stock, one being 1/8 in 1095 and the other being around 3/16 in...I guess this lessens the chance for bad steel?
 
Chuck, if the steel is contaminated or got contaminated somehow, it could contaminate your HT furnace. I wouldn’t mess with it until I found out... one of those rare occasions when sending one of the messed up pieces (and a fresh piece) out to a lab might be a good idea.
 
It's not exactly like anything I've seen before, but the way the cracks formed, grain and the color/texture on the surface sure do smack of some type of contamination... can't speculate what type of contamination, but it looks pretty bad.

Maybe someone else will chime in.
 
There is a chance your furnace may be contaminated, so I'd be real careful, (could pose a health risk), until you find out.
 
I had a buddy that wanted me to treat some blades for him once he was sure were
ats-34, he had 01, and ats, I go ahead and treat them in a batch of ats and what happened
looked very similar. Tai got me to thinking about that when he said you fried it. That was
a 1975 degree soak for 40 min. in the foil.
Ken.
 
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These were done at tru grit in California, they advertise H/T with state of the art equipment by a knifemaker with over 14 years of H/T experience..you would think with this "extensive" knowledge he would have caught this..
 
I didn't read all the posts between your photos and response and this, but it clearly looks like they put your blades in with a bunch of stainless blades and/or extremely overheated them. Those photos of the blade before grinding look horrible. I don't ever recall seeing a blade out of a proper HT that bad. It is burned up. If it was showed to me as part of a "what is this" quiz, I would say it was a blade left in a running forge for an hour. What you are seeing is a burned piece of steel with massive grain growth.

I would be on the phone with the HTer on Monday and talk to the HT supervisor. Something went drastically wrong. Either:
The oven was improperly programmed, and they ran a stainless HT regimen
There was a malfunction. It could have been in the HT or the temper, but at some point that blade has been WAY above 2000F.
They put your blades in the wrong batch.

You will have to decide what course of action to pursue but these are my suggestions to the HTer:
Full refund of the HT costs.
Offer to replace the steel.


I personally would not do any more business with them.
What they should have done is call you up and say there was a problem. $#!t happens, and we all have things like this come up. What keeps the customer coming back is good communication and owning up to a mishaps.
 
If they ran them as stainless then they wouldn’t have been hardened... air hardening not oil or water quenched.

Did you/they check them for hardness?

... if they tempered them as stainless they wouldn't be very hard either.
 
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I don't want to speculate as to what someone else did. But something went horribly wrong here. I took a quick look at the TG site and they do not sell carbon steel. I wonder if they even realize those were carbon. BUT even a carbon steel blade put in with stainless for the proper amount of time would not look like that. As Tai pointed out they look contaminated or burned. Way too high a temp for way too long.

Danny if you send some to me I will take a look and see if I can tell if they are contaminated. Since I HT in my forge with a TC or use salt pots I am not as worried about contamination. I can just reline my forge at the worst. It needs it anyway. I will email you.

Take Care
 
Yeah, I wouldn't rule out contamination just yet... but really don't know what type could have caused that. Chuck, don't you think the salts could get contaminated?
 
Thanks for all of the help guys..It is somewhat frustrating due to the time and materials involved..I did specifically ask if they did 1095 before I sent them and i was assured they did..I will speak to the heat treat department on Monday and get this straightened out. Once again thanks Chuck, for you to offer your services is greatly appreciated...
 
Tai, It looks like major scale from a way too hot HT furnace to me. I have seen some blades that were left in an electric furnace for an extended period of time at high temps that looked very much the same. If Danny will send a piece of that heat treated material I will look at it first. If they used an anti scale compound that would account for the funky colors. Since this material was from 2 different bars the chances of the contamination coming from the steel is slight. Danny were they forged or stock removal? If they were stock removal then the contamination came from the HT. I will also forge a piece of my 1095 and do it right along side for a comparison.
 
Danny,

It really sucks to see this happen. I remember your thread about figuring out your grinds and how happy you were to get your grinding technique figured out. It'd kill me to lose one blade as few as I get ground let alone 4. :(

Be sure to take Chuck up on his offer.

I'm sure they will compensate you in some way for your blades. I am disappointed that you weren't called about the problems. My buddy Greg uses Peter's and Brad has called Greg and discussed any blades that he had problems with. He's also had great results with Bos.

Can someone explain steel contamination?:o
 
Funny thing Brian (well not so funny I guess) is that these were the blades I spoke of and posted the pics of..But I have to say that the help and support I get from everyone on here really takes the sting out of it. For everyone to step up with their suggestions and input, and for Chuck to offer to help I gotta say you guys are great!
 
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