Need Heat Treat Recipes for A2

Outdoor Gear Dad

Outdoor Gear Dad

Joined
Jun 1, 2019
Messages
211
Hello all, I finally saved my pennies and bought an even heat kiln. Kh414 since I only have 120V in my garage.

I got the Rampmaster and have been programming some sequences. I have some A2 that I wold like to experiment with. Here is my question...Whats the best sequence or recipe for A2?

It you could put it in rampmaster terms that would be great. For example:

Run two sequences, the first ramp at 50% to 1475, soak for 10 minutes, then ramp at 100% to 1750, soak for 10 minutes, then Plate quench, subzero or cryo treat, then temper at 400 for 2 hours x 2.

Any help would be great. Thanks!@
 
There is no need for a pre heat. That is for more complex cross sections that have some parts at temp while others are still reaching temp. Knives are extremely simple in cross section and really don't need pre heats. Maybe the extremely high alloy steels may benefit from such, but I don't think even they need pre heat.

You can try this recipe that has given me excellent results with A2. It came from a well respected metallurgist on this forum and includes a prequench for grain refinement/theoretically better toughness....
Get your oven to 1600°F and let it sit there for a while to ensure the atmosphere inside is completely at temp.
Insert blade and let it soak for 20 minutes (once the temp readout has rebounded), then plate quench
"Temper" at 1200°F for 2 hours
Get your oven to 1775°F " " " " " " " " " " completely at temp
Instert blade and let it soak for 20 minutes (once the temp readout has rebounded), then plate quench
Once the blade temp is ambient, go immediately into cryo or dry ice slurry and soak for at least an hour (with dry ice the idea you are only dealing with RA, which is converted at the speed of sound when the blade gets to that temp) (with LN2, it's not just RA conversion, but other things going on, so soak in LN2 for 4-8 hours)
Remove blade and let it come up to ambient temp
Temper 2 hours 2 times at 300°F to 450°F depending on your final desired HRC
 
I am picking up some of this steel as well, so interested what people have to say. I was planning on following the Uddeholm data sheet and see where that gets me, initially.
 
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