Magnacut Heat Treat

M

Mobius1

Joined
Feb 15, 2016
Messages
133
I'm curious what people are doing with their Magnacut HT.

Personally I've been sticking to the 2050F at 350F temper, but I've been wondering if it might be worth getting it a bit harder.

If you do make it harder, what seems to have the best results? Increased austenizing temps but remain at 350 temper? Or also drop it to 300F temper?

I was thinking I might try just a bit. Like 2100F and a 325F temper.
 
are you cryo quenching?
 
I austenitize at 2200 for 15 minutes, LN, temper x2 at 300 and get a pretty reliable 65.
 
If you’re looking for another 1-2 Rc without looking for the max you might try 2150F, cryo, 350F. That will maintain some of the toughness and resistance to overheating from the 350F tempering.
 
Sean Yaw said:
I austenitize at 2200 for 15 minutes, LN, temper x2 at 300 and get a pretty reliable 65.
Click to expand...
How is the performance at that hardness? Do you find the loss of toughness worthwhile for more general use, or are you doing it for something specific (like kitchen knives)?
 
All depends on your use. I dropped down to 62 Rc as I wanted a little more toughness and realized chasing higher hardness was not necessarily gaining me any noticeable performance in my use.

62 Rc for me with most steels is the sweet spot were the strength is enough to support the edges I like to sharpen for the tasks I ask of the knife. Jumping harder i don't necessarily see better performance but I always see more microchip edge dulling under 100x microscope.
 
Mobius1 said:
How is the performance at that hardness? Do you find the loss of toughness worthwhile for more general use, or are you doing it for something specific (like kitchen knives)?
Click to expand...
I make slipjoints and grind them very thin. I have not had anyone complain about damaging them, but it is safe to say they don't see hard use. The hardest use I have put them through is aggressively whittling branches. From Larrin's article: "At maximum hardness (~65 Rc), MagnaCut matches the toughness of the best PM stainless steels when they are at only 60-61 Rc, like S35VN and Vanax. And significantly better toughness than steels like M390 and S30V at their typical hardness levels."

Maybe heat treat a test knife to higher hardness and beat it up a bit.
 
Seedy Lot said:
All depends on your use. I dropped down to 62 Rc as I wanted a little more toughness and realized chasing higher hardness was not necessarily gaining me any noticeable performance in my use.

62 Rc for me with most steels is the sweet spot were the strength is enough to support the edges I like to sharpen for the tasks I ask of the knife. Jumping harder i don't necessarily see better performance but I always see more microchip edge dulling under 100x microscope.
Click to expand...

Yeah, chipping is my greatest fear about going harder! Thanks for the insight.

Sean Yaw said:
I make slipjoints and grind them very thin. I have not had anyone complain about damaging them, but it is safe to say they don't see hard use. The hardest use I have put them through is aggressively whittling branches. From Larrin's article: "At maximum hardness (~65 Rc), MagnaCut matches the toughness of the best PM stainless steels when they are at only 60-61 Rc, like S35VN and Vanax. And significantly better toughness than steels like M390 and S30V at their typical hardness levels."

Maybe heat treat a test knife to higher hardness and beat it up a bit.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it was thinking about exactly that, which is what made me wonder about going harder. I don't have experience with a lot of those steels though, but I do with Elmax and found it to be too chippy for me.

But Elmax is pretty awful toughness.

I obviously haven't tested higher hardnesses yet, and perhaps I will. But I have tested more acute edges. I'm happy at 15 degrees, which is where I go with most of my Magnacut knives. If I want a bit more edge retention I convex it (still 15).
 
Last edited:
Larrin said:
If you’re looking for another 1-2 Rc without looking for the max you might try 2150F, cryo, 350F. That will maintain some of the toughness and resistance to overheating from the 350F tempering.
Click to expand...
After looking at your graphs on your website, I am thinking I might actually try 2100F at a 300F temper for my next run. I don't worry too much about overheating since I grind pre-heat treat.

I also have done some interrupted oil quench testing in the past but wasn't happy with the results, but I may revisit it again in the future with some faster oil and lower temps. My biggest issue was my Condursal compound burning up at 2050F causing decarb.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top