Long 0-1 blade question

Burchtree

Burchtree

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I was finishing up a lonnnggg kyhber fighter out of 0-1; with about a 15-inch distal-taper blade. I triple-normalized the blade clay-coated the spine and full-quenched it in AAA oil. I double-tempered the blade at 500 degrees. Now, my problem is that the blade "bends." I can take the thinner tip and bend it some and it will keep a little bit of the curve.

Any suggestions?
 
Not sure but it sounds like you went a little hot on the temper. Not that familure with 0-1. If so the only recorse is to re-harden.
 
I'm with Will, I think 500 is way too hot to temper O1. But unless the tip is very thin I wouldn't think that would soften it so much it'd just bend. I wonder if the tip got so hot during soak that it just completely decarbed? I don't know if that would keep it from hardening but it's what came to mind when I read your post. Let's see some pics of this one when you get it done Michael! Sounds like something I need to see. :D
 
Oh...500 degrees is hot buddy! I know you saw plenty of literature that says to temper in the 500 degree range but in my experience this info is WRONG! Go for no more than 425 next time.
 
I wonder if it ever got hard enough there. Did it pass the skating file test before tempering? A better pre-tempering test is to grind it down to clean steel and dip it in ferric cloride to see the hamon. If it is a good quench it will show a nice line, if not heat and quench again. Saves some head aches and time.

Have you ever made springs? They temper at 690f. They dont bend and stay bent. Thats why I question the quench. It may have simply been under temp at the quench. There is a 5 minute soak time we havent talked about also. Lots of variables. If at first you dont succeed..try try again.
 
Mike, I'll have to agree with Bruce. I've had 01 blades with a slight warp and could not straighten them out after tempering (no bending)

D Hanson lll
 
it showed a good temperline, but I'm not sure what happened. I'm afraid if I temper it any lower than 500 that long, thin tip is gonna break right off with use.
 
very interesting stuff.....(taking notes)

I'm very interested in clay-coating blades for a quench line. Hrisoulas says in his book that there is no need to temper (he's using med. carb 10xx steels) because the clay keeps the steel from reaching critical, and from being quenched - so, I guess it's half-annealed still?

I agree with you, though...leaving a long blade untempered could potentially be a bad mistake.
 
If it's a side to side warp then I'd straighten hot and re-HT. If it's curved like a saber, then that's because of the clay coat, that's the reason katanas are curved like that. If you don't want that curve then you can't do a clay coat on a blade that long.
 
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