Quenching in sawdust

T

tacticalrescue

Joined
Mar 13, 2016
Messages
47
does anyone have some insight into quenching with sawdust? ive done it where i am and noticed significantly less scaling. ive read some "more superstitious" claims and insights that it is better for the steel and carbon?

all the best,
Marc

for the sake of the question i have been using O1 steel. but im curious in general. im also guessing this is applying to air harden steels aswell and not oil??....
 
Sounds like a fire waiting to happen, and I don't see how you can quench in sawdust-unless it's wet.
 
Metal sawdust could easily cause an explosion if put on fire. Unless it is fully oxidised, of course. Be careful.
 
Are you talking about quenching, or packing it into the end of a muffle pipe for heat treat? If the latter, doesn't it reduce decarburization of the metal's surface by providing an easier source of carbon for the oxygen to react with?
 
Quenching in a cocktail of jet fuel, filings, sawdust, and used motor oil will increase blade hardness by 100%...
 
You forgot the blood of virgins. This question is about as funny as the one the guy on Quora asked the other die, why do people die when they get stabbed? :rolleyes:
Nic. said:
Quenching in a cocktail of jet fuel, filings, sawdust, and used motor oil will increase blade hardness by 100%...
Click to expand...
 
matus said:
Metal sawdust could easily cause an explosion if put on fire. Unless it is fully oxidised, of course. Be careful.
Click to expand...

Do u mean metal and sawdust? Or is there a specific thing called metal sawdust? And it set on fire when i removed them but no explosion. Are u being dramatic in word or was i lucky?
 
AlaskanHunter said:
Are you talking about quenching, or packing it into the end of a muffle pipe for heat treat? If the latter, doesn't it reduce decarburization of the metal's surface by providing an easier source of carbon for the oxygen to react with?
Click to expand...

do u mean simply burning the sawdust inside the heat treating pipe to deprive the environment of oxygen? does more carbon come off sawdust or something of this manner?
 
tacticalrescue said:
do u mean simply burning the sawdust inside the heat treating pipe to deprive the environment of oxygen? does more carbon come off sawdust or something of this manner?
Click to expand...

Not intentionally burning the sawdust, but rather making charcoal of it in a way. Some of the dust will burn, taking the oxygen in the muffle with it. This is the oxygen that will cause scale and decarburization on the surface of the knife. If the oxygen is used up before the metal is hot enough for this to happen, you should in theory get no scale or decarb. Obviously this doesn't work perfectly, because oxygen is free to enter the open end of the muffle, so you will get some scale/decarb, but it seems to help. You will still have to grind/sand some scale and decarburized metal off of your blade post heat treat, however from my humble experiments it appears to reduce it a bit.
As for carbon migrating into your metal during the process, in theory it's possible, but you won't get any noticeable results, much less ones of value to the finished blade.
This is the only legitimate use of sawdust in the heat treating process that I'm aware of. Any other use of it, especially as some sort of quenching medium is likely a tall tale. Those who understand the heat treating process better than I - feel free to correct me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top