Neat Quench Line

Greg Covington

Greg Covington

Joined
Oct 28, 1999
Messages
1,563
This little utility blade came from a sawmill blade that I have had around the shop for years.

This particular piece of steel gives me a great pattern at the quench line....feathery-like.

The rest of the quenched section looks alot like the shear steel that Ray has been showing us.

This one gave me a rainbow of color....particularly at the quench line which is at straw yellow.

smb.jpg
 
I've heard a few accounts of the feathery structure. One explaination was the repeated heating and cooling cycles the blade goes through in its life as a saw. I've got a few big honkin blades that needs to be cut up and tested. Looks cool.
 
that's nice! Is that some more "feather" I see just forward of the wrap up by the spine? Or your maker's mark? How thick a sawblade was this??, how wide? circular?? I"m asking cause I've several as well and like you, they seem to have avoided the anvil for some reason... How'd you cut it up? I've found thin stuff of any sort, hard or not, seems to tear up my good bandsaw blades! Could you (did you...) cut'em up with a torch?
I''ll post a pic later today of a Japanese style piece I've just done with parachute cord wrap done in "sorta kinda" Japanese style with the turns'n knots as shown in that wrapping link we've all circulated...

regards, mitch
 
Greg, Here's one I did a few months back. Its not shear steel but its got a ton of pattern in it.
PDRM0576.JPG

I find I get the most pattern if I do a number of quick etches rubbing inbetween with 2000 grit. The knife you just did did it have little shinny spots on it? If so thats a result of leaving it in the etch to long.

Mitch, I have the best results cutting the saw steel after I anneal it. If I have a burn pile I'll just put the saw blades in that but other times I'll cut off strips that will fit in my heat treating oven. I'll use a skilsaw with an abrasive blade to do that. After they have been annealed they cut fine with a bandsaw.
 
Mitch....I use a chopsaw to mow thru sections that I need out of steel of this thickness....faster than a bandsaw...cheaper too. It is one of the most used items in my shop.

The actual blade is like 3 ft in diameter and about 1/8 thick.

It shows a beautiful grain structure.

I initially made this one to use around the shop but I figured it was nice enough that someone might really like to have it.
 
Very cool -- I'm sure someone would love to have that one. :)
 
Greg,
Can you share with us your heat treating methods for sawblade steel? I just cut up about 30 blanks out of two different blades last month. So far I've only finished one blade, and the heat treating is going to be trial and error for me. Just curious to see how you did it. The knife looks great by the way.

Ryan
 
Ryan...

I dont really think that this particular blade is L6. The actual blade is not tipped like the others I have though.

Past use of it and using actual L6...the result isnt the same.

After a light forging...I heated to critical and let it cool on the anvil. Ground the blade then brought it up to critical again and quenched in Brownell's ToughQuench oil that was at room temp...about 80F

I found that on this particular stuff that a 325F temper twice works well....at 350F it is just a bit soft.

Start low with the temper...like 325 and then give a brass rod test and go in 25F increments from there. If your blade is L6....you will need 375-410F

Hope this helps!
 
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