So where are people getting troublesome AEB-L?

Hey Clint, did you make that hammer, or what? Does it have a high hardness, and what's the shape? I ask because I have not been able to make it work on my AEB-L, mostly since it's at 62 Rockwell out of temper.
FWIW my quench plates are 1" thick and soak up heat quite well, although I also use air on them.
 
I saw a post on the web yesterday that says that the Chinese mills make a steel, I think called 440M, that is an attempt to replicate AEB-L/13C26. Anyone ever heard of that?
 
Salem Straub said:
Hey Clint, did you make that hammer, or what? Does it have a high hardness, and what's the shape? I ask because I have not been able to make it work on my AEB-L, mostly since it's at 62 Rockwell out of temper.
FWIW my quench plates are 1" thick and soak up heat quite well, although I also use air on them.
Click to expand...

Hey Salem, I actually took a photo of it when I made it because I had never made a handle before. Don't mind the crack it was my first attempt and I learned something :D

Here are a couple photos, I think the hammer was some kind of concrete hammer that had a cross peen that i ground down. I did not re-harden the hammer but i was careful to dunk it after each pass.

IMG_0456 by Clint, on Flickr

IMG_0457 by Clint, on Flickr

The "point" is about a 1/4" wide give or take. I just used it over the weekend on some AEBL, I had one that the tip was a little tweaked out of the dry ice. I don't slam it but i found it does work better with a bit more force then just a tap. But what I have noticed is it does not really put a noticeable dent in the steel, its very faint and easily ground away when I grind my bevels. Just be careful not to nail the spine or edge because that has gotten me in trouble! And I suppose I should mention I have only done this on blanks out of heat treat and before any bevel grinding.

-Clint
 
This is what Jeff Mutz the knifemaker at TruGrit uses for quenching.

The plates are thick, heavy and have coolant running through them I have seen hundreds of blades come off of those plates FLAT.

No torches needed :)

zwPIVKi.jpg
 
Here's my current experience. I have a few AEB-L blanks I cut from Aldo's .125 stock and worked on two last night. I hardened both the same way, but the tanto was only tempered once at 400 and the boning knife twice at 400.

I ground that narrow boning blade complete on one side before switching to the other and it stayed straight as an arrow. The tanto curled every time I touched the grinder and now needs to be straightened in it's second temper.
 
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