Melted a piece of 1084 forging. Is it still good to use?

R

Railrider1920

Joined
Dec 14, 2010
Messages
403
Hey Folks,
I was doing some forging yesterday in a charcoal forge with a hair dryer for a blower. I was working on a piece of Aldos 1084. I had cut it out to match a piece of san mai I have. I wanted to work on this one first before attempting the san mai.

The san mai blank is the bottom one. The 1084 on top was cut out to match the SM. The black area is the piece that came off. I put it in the fire and let it sit there. Not sure, but I think it got up to yellow hot. When I grabbed the tang with tongs and pulled it out, the front part just stayed where it was. The red arrow is a result of me hitting the steel after it broke.
brokenknife.jpg


This is the end of the piece. The left side kind of looks like wrought iron would when you bend it at a cut. The right side looks a little like it melted.
brokeknife3.jpg


There is a crack in the end of it now. That may have been from me hammering on it though. I just kept at it. If I cut it back a little, maybe where the blue line is, would the piece be usable for a knife or is it ruined?
brokeknife2.jpg


Well, in the process of screwing up this blank,I learned to pay attention and watch the metal in the fire. So do you think the piece that is left will be ok for a knife? Anyone know what temps steel gets to at yellow hot and hotter?
Thanks
 
If you get hot enough to create the "sparkler" effect (often called white hot) with sparks flying aggressively from the steel, it's toast. If you get hot enough to melt steel, which is beyond the sparkler, it's toast. You're talking temps in excess of 2500F.

--nathan
 
It's dead, bury it and move on :( Maybe throw in in a steel scraps bucket and make some fitting damascus with it later on down the road, but it's not gonna be a knife anymore.
 
As you go above normal forging temps you get melting of the grain boundaries then oxidation of the grain boundaries --it's scrap !!
 
Cut the tang off and make a small blade out of it. :)

... Is the glass half empty or half full?
 
Thanks guys. I was thinking that the very end of it was toast for sure.

Yoda, Where in Fl are you located?

I may make something out of the tang for work, not a knife though.

LOL, thanks Jake, yeah, it is.

What temps make the metal yellow / bright orange?
 
Southwest florida, and it's been a while but I think 1800 is where it starts to transition from orange to yellow, 2000ish is bright yellow, 2200+ is basically white hot. Go a bit above that and it starts to sparkle and then melt. Edit: Be aware that the ambient lighting conditions will affect the apparent color temperature. Something in noon sunlight may appear to be orange but under shade would be yellow hot.
 
I was kind of thinking that Yoda has the right train of thought so too speak. If you are achieving those kind of temps and you are not seeing the color spectrum to tell when to pull back the heat. Move to the shade where the lighting will help to see that transition! I have a heat/color chart saved somewhere if I can locate it I will post you a copy!

Here is one from one site, I had a better one but can't seem to find it!

http://www.beautifuliron.com/usingthe.htm
 
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Thanks guys. After I posted that, I was looking through the stickies and came across a nice looking chart on the color and temps. Now if I can remember where it was...
 
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