Pitting After Quench

T

The Gopher

Joined
Mar 4, 2011
Messages
176
I don't have fancy equipment (yet) and I know now that O1 may not be the best choice given the equipment I have (I've since received plenty of 1084 from Aldo), but this is where I'm at right now. O1 blades, heated in firebrick forge. Did I overheat them before quench? These pits are not sanding out, they are pretty deep. The blades did seem to get hard, a file slips right off. The one pictured below was the worst, and was worse on one side of the blade than the other.

I've since also purchased a pyrometer.



 
does the blade lie still in the forge when it is heating? i have noticed i get deeper pits and or decarb if it stays still while heating. especially near the burner. when i hold the blade in tongs and keep it turning and moving it is much more shallow and sands out easy. it might be worth a try.
 
Try to tune your flame to a reducing athmosphere (more gas, less air) and use an iron pipe inside the forge (the blade goes inside the pipe) so the flame doesn't hit directly the blade.
A nice add on to your tool box would be PCB antiscale compound or the like.
If you want to save that blade you should grind until fresh steel, or if you like that look just call it good, why not?
 
Thanks guys,

Woodster, it was more still than it should have been, my fault on that I was trying to do too many things at once...SLOW DOWN!

A muffler was next on my list of things to get. This blade was just another one for me anyway so I'll finish it out, just trying to learn and get better with the limited tools I have! thanks again!
 
Yes you are correct O1 is not the right choice and 1095 would not be a good choice either with your equipment . Try and stick with the steels you can heat treat succefull . You need to soak O1 and it also should be held at around 1250 for a pre heat before hand so your not doing it the way it should so just hold on to the remaining O1 until you can .

A well made knife in 1084 is better than a substandard heat treat in any steel . I'm sure you know this but you should practice this with anything you do .. Why spend the time right ? It was overheated . The pits are from that . Good luck
 
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