Need help with heat treating 1086M!

[Phillip Patton]

I got some square bar 1086M some time ago, and recently made two blades from it. Both of them broke when they were coming down through Ms, and had grain growth. I thermal cycled them just like I do all my other knives, which ALWAYS results in fine grain, so I have no idea what's going on here. I austenitized them in salts at 1475 F for 10 or 15 minutes. Does anybody know what's going on?

Thanks,

Phillip

 

[birdog4]

contact Howard Clark

 

[NickWheeler]

What were your normalizing cycles like Phillip?

I treat it very much like W2. I start with a high temp normalizing and then do a few in descending order.

The few blades that I had the chance to play with this stuff on turned out well. I only soaked them for about 5 minutes at temp, and they were also clay coated.

 

[Don Hanson III]

Phillip, are you sure it is 1086M? I've only seen it in 1-3/8" round stock.

It's a wonderful steel and like Nick said, I also heat treat it like W2....