While heat treating 1084, I'm worried I may have submerged my non-mag blades in 130F canola oil for too long before transferring to my 400F grill. I held them under for between 20-30 secs before transferring to 400F grill for one hour. Did I quench too long? Worried bc I can't tell a very noticeable sound difference using the file test
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Quenching question
- Thread starter bkstabler
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Bill DeShivs
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You should be just fine.
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Can you actually quench steel for too long? I know you can quench too fast or too slowly and that you want to temper fairly quickly to get some toughness back before you accidentally shatter your steel.
Instead of using an oven, I've been using a propane grill. I figured it probably holds temp better
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith
ilmarinen - MODERATOR
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OK, I'll try and put some info in here.
The quench needs to be long enough to allow all the martensite to form. It should stay in the oil until you can hold it in your hand, and then come to room temperature before the temper. Several minutes is the norm. Too soon, and you stop the martensite from forming and get a strange mix of austenite, pearlite, and martensite....not what you want in a good blade. It might skate a file a bit, but will have poor performance.
A propane fired grill is about the worst thing I could think of to temper a blade. Unless you put two big plates of iron in the grill, and put the blade between them, and had a thermometer on or in the plates, it would be almost a sure thing that the blades will absorb the radiant energy from the flame heat source and overheat. I would expect them to go greatly over the target of 400. Also, the gages on a grill hood read the approximate air temp in the hood, the temp at the grill surface is higher, and the gages are notoriously inaccurate.
The quench needs to be long enough to allow all the martensite to form. It should stay in the oil until you can hold it in your hand, and then come to room temperature before the temper. Several minutes is the norm. Too soon, and you stop the martensite from forming and get a strange mix of austenite, pearlite, and martensite....not what you want in a good blade. It might skate a file a bit, but will have poor performance.
A propane fired grill is about the worst thing I could think of to temper a blade. Unless you put two big plates of iron in the grill, and put the blade between them, and had a thermometer on or in the plates, it would be almost a sure thing that the blades will absorb the radiant energy from the flame heat source and overheat. I would expect them to go greatly over the target of 400. Also, the gages on a grill hood read the approximate air temp in the hood, the temp at the grill surface is higher, and the gages are notoriously inaccurate.