Newb needs help identifying mystery steel

T

TheThurmanator

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Jun 4, 2008
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A while back, while playing around in my metal shop, I cut out a rough blade blank out of a piece of steel I found. I wasn't really trying, but I liked it so much that I decided to dig out the old coal forge and have a go at making it into my first large knife. I've made a few small knives before so I know the basics of forging, but nothing more than letter openers and never anything that I heat treated. I have the basic idea of how to heat treat it, but to re harden and temper it after the annealing process, I need to figure out what kind of steel it is to begin with. All I know about it is that it was marked "oil hardened."

I posted this question in the general forum, and was told to search around in the maker's forums, but so far I've had no luck finding my answers. Is there a specific, simple method to figure out what kind of steel it is?
 
Sure, you take a sample and send it in for analysis.

You don't need to know to harden it though, I would just try to quench it in oil from non-magnetic and see if it hardens.
 
If you still have a piece of the original steel you cut the blank from, you can experiment with heat treating a bit. Heat a scrap piece of the steel to non-magnetic and try to hold it there or a smidge above for a few minutes. Then quench in oil heated to around 130. After it cools to room temperature, put it in the vice and try and break it in half. If it bends over and doesn't snap, you didn't achieve a hardening. If it breaks crisply and cleanly, take a close look at the edge of the break. You want to see some pretty fine structures, not a large clumpy mess. If it's clumpy, you probably overheated it. If it doesn't look uniform, you may not have even heating or maybe weren't able to soak at temperature long enough. If it looks fine and uniform throughout, test it with a file and see if it bites anywhere. If the file skates off the steel, you probably hit it pretty close.

This is just a guess-work way to check a heat treat. Pay close attention to the temp of the steel and the time you soaked, quench oil temperature, etc. for consistency. Of course, the only way to know for sure is to have it analyzed. I know there are members here who analyze steel, but I can't seem to remember who.

--nathan
 
I will probably try to get it analyzed at my local machine shop. I do have one tiny scrap left over, but it's so small that I'd probably melt it by accident trying to test it. I'll post results when I get them.

Are there any stickies or FAQ sheets anywhere on what kind of oil to use with which kinds of steel, and that explain the same different temperatures involved in the hardening and tempering processes?
 
I managed to figure out that it's almost definitely 01. Can anyone point me to a good tutorial for a first timer on how to oil harden this?
 
From memory,

Normalize 3 times going to non magnetic then air cooling.
Anneal by going from non-magnetic slowly overnight.
Bring up to 1450-1500F then soak for 15-20 mins.
Quench in oil.
Temper at 425F for 2 hours.

Maybe others could correct/elaborate on this. There seems to always be variations on this, especially tempering and quenching.
 
Keith_H said:
From memory,

Normalize 3 times going to non magnetic then air cooling.
Anneal by going from non-magnetic slowly overnight.
Bring up to 1450-1500F then soak for 15-20 mins.
Quench in oil.
Temper at 425F for 2 hours.

Maybe others could correct/elaborate on this. There seems to always be variations on this, especially tempering and quenching.
Click to expand...

The only thing I would add is w/ 0-1, watch for warpage. I normalize,straighten,do it again. Normalize untill it remains straight and you should come out of the quench straight.
 
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