Orange Peel??????

S

sph0772

Joined
Feb 14, 2009
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33
I quenched a 1075 blade in vegetable oil. Did this three times then tempered the steel at 400 deg. twice. First for two hrs then for one. Admiral steel recommended the 400 deg. Anyway when I polished the blade to a mirror finish I noticed a Orange Peel look to the steel. I only edge quenched. Should this concern me?????
 
Did you regrind it after heat treating? If not, then you're probably looking at de-carb. You need to take off at least several thousands of an inch to get rid of it.
 
Didn't regrind the blade just hand sanded with 220 then 400. Buffed w/white rouge and buffing wheel. Then made adjustments as needed with 800 grit and buffing wheel.
 
Sometimes light hand sanding after HT is not sufficient, you need to get rid of the outer layer of decarb for sure...
Emre
 
Might be a hamon or separate hardness spots, after 3 quenches in a slow oil 1075 would probably show some weird things.
 
My guess is also over-buffing. You should have the blade prepped so that it only takes just a minute or so on the buffer to get a mirror polish. Don't rely on the buffer to remove scratches from earlier sanding grits.

--nathan
 
Why the 3 quenches??? No sense in it. Normalizing heats are one thing, but this could very well be why you are seeing the decarb that is likely appearing as "orange peel".....
Matt Doyle
 
Ulitmately, if it's not excessively thick, the decarb will likely be ground away at the cutting edge when you sharpen, so my guess is no. I'd take a smidge off of the very edge before sharpening just to be sure.

--nathan
 
I have had alloy banding pop out in Admiral's 1075, had a sort of wood-grain appearance like etched wrought iron.
 
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