Oil quench for A-2 and D-2 steels?

[loosenock]

I have been enjoying working with and doing my own treatment with O-1. Are there any pitfalls in oil quenching A-2 and D-2 steels.

Thanks

Joe (loosenock)

 

[Chuck Gedraitis Knives]

A-2 and D-2 are air hardening steels, meaning you heat it up and let it cool in front of a fan or in still air. They require very high temps to harden.
A-2 Preheat at 1450 then raise to 1725-1800. draw at 350 for one hr.
D-2 Preheat at 1450 then raise to 1800-1850. Draw at 350 for one hr.

 

[clint c]

Both are air-hardenable tool steels that have rather picky heat treat recipies. You'd have to contact someone more familiar with them for specifics. Most heat treaters that do air-hardenable steels should be able to fix you up. Unless you have a heat treat oven, I'd send blades made of these steels for out of house heat treat.

 

[Don Powell]

What Striper28 said. Because these are air hardening steels, I
would expect more variation in the as quenched HRC. Because of
this, I personally would not want to do the heat treating unless
I had a high quality oven, and most important, a Rockwell hardness
tester. These are high priced items, would have to do a lot of
blades to make this worthwhile.