Overly long temper?

[Osbourn]

Ok, I messed up. I did a skinner out of 1095 and decided that it would be really cool with a japanese heat treat, so I went through the standard paces, lucked out with not breaking it, and immediately put it into the oven at 350f, clay still on it.
Then I crashed out. 9 hours later or so I turned off the oven. Would such an obnoxiously long normalizing cycle have possible ill effects?
Thanks.

 

[peter nap]

That's a good question. Try the file test and see what it feels like. My opinion has always been that the time was just to insure that all of the steel was brought to an even tempature. If that is in fact true, you should be fine, if not....oh well...another theory in the trash.

I know that time is NOT a factor in draw tempering. You watch for the color and quench. I see no reason why it would matter how long it stayed at that tempature.

 

[Eric M Ericson]

no, it seams to be the temprature that tempers, not the length of time. 30 min to 1 hour is normal this allows time for the metal to heat evenly all the way through.

If you leave it in longer it won't hurt anything, it mearly wastes energy.

 

[Osbourn]

Thanks for the input, guys. This is comforting so far. It's really thin now, as I took it to almost final dimensions before heat treat, and I really didn't want to waste any more material if I had to redo the quench. I'll post pics of it when it's done, if it isn't too embarrassing and if I don't find a crack in the polish, which has been known to happen with this HT.
Thanks again.