O1 steel heat treating with/like A2 steel

C

Cookswithfire

Joined
Mar 30, 2013
Messages
87
Hey guys,

I will be sending some A2 out for heat treating; is it possible to send O1 steel with it to have it treated with the A2 in order to save money?

I only have 3 A2 knives so far to heat treat. Is there another common steel I can send also, I would like to try drifferent steels, but heat treating can get expensive if you don't do multiples, as I'm sure you all well know.

Thanks for the help guys,
Joe
 
O1 will have massive grain growth if heat treated at the same temps as A2. You need to ask your heat treater if they can handle O1.
 
No, you never mix steels in HT.
When it comes to trying steels - it is MUCH MUCH better find one you like and work with it.
If you find satisfing HT shop, stay with with one steel and that shop.
 
Cookswithfire said:
I will be sending some A2 out for heat treating; is it possible to send O1 steel with it to have it treated with the A2 in order to save money?
Click to expand...

The HT shop I use handles both air-hardening (like A2*) and oil-quenched (like O1*) steels, but they charge a flat rate per batch up to a certain weight/amount of blades per type of steel, since they have to deal with them separately in hardening, quenching and tempering... so I wait until I have at least a half-dozen blades of the same type before sending them in. When I have a dozen carbon and a dozen stainless blades, yeah it saves money to ship them all together.


*Air- or Oil-hardening is exactly what the letters in those two alloys stands for, so your situation is actually a great example for this discussion :)
 
Thanks for the help guys!
And the A and O, I had no idea; that makes so much sense.

I plan on having six A2 to send in, do you think peters is my best bet?

Thanks again for the help
 
And "w" (example, W2) is a water quenched steel, but most (as far as I understand it) quench in fast oil. Just to confuse things. :D
 
Strigamort said:
And "w" (example, W2) is a water quenched steel, but most (as far as I understand it) quench in fast oil. Just to confuse things. :D
Click to expand...


There are also S, H, and T steels :D And those names have nothing to do with quenching :D
 
Let's stick to the OP's question, shall we?

Peters' HT can do an excellent job on every steel I know of. Call them with your questions. Ask to speak to Brad, or anyone in the cutlery division. They deal with this stuff every single day. :thumbup:
 
Just a tip:

Purchase a couple of the metal marking paint pens in white. You can find them everywhere from Fastenal to K-mart.
On every bar of steel you get, mark the metal type on both sides and on both ends. Every time you cut some off, re-mark that end.
On every knife blank you cut, mark the tang area with the metal type. If it gets ground off, re-mark it. (If you are a real purist, stamp the metal type in the tang with a set of cheap HF stamps.)
Once the blade(s) is/are ready for HT, mark the steel type and your name on both sides of the tang. The titanium dioxide in the white pigment will survive the HT and come back fully readable. You will then be able to separate the blades as to metal type when finishing. Black works, too, but I find the white holds up best.

Trusting your memory as to which bar of steel is which, and which blade is which will guarantee a problem somewhere down the road. Twenty seconds spent marking things can save days worth of wasted time and anger later on.

BTW, the pens mark blocks of wood for stabilizing, too. Use only white for the wood, as black can color the chemicals.
 
bladsmth said:
...On every knife blank you cut, mark the tang area with the metal type. If it gets ground off, re-mark it. (If you are a real purist, stamp the metal type in the tang with a set of cheap HF stamps.)
Click to expand...

I don't know if I'm a purist, but I do use cheap HF stamps on my tangs exactly like you said. :thumbup:
 
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