Stainless steel foil crumbling during plate quench

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Saido_knives

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Oct 24, 2021
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Hi guys

I have just started making knives using Nitro-V steel and had a question regarding the stainless steel foil.
When I remove the knife from the forge and plate quench the foil seems to crack and almost disintegrate as it cools.
In the videos I have watched this doesn't seem to happen.
I don't seem to be getting any holes in the foil whilst it is in the forge but it slightly concerns me if this was to happen whilst sitting in the forge.
Is this because I am using a forge with a burner instead of a kiln, or am I doing something wrong?

Thanks
 
There’s two different foils available, one with a slightly higher temp rating
I think attempting to harden stainless steel in the Forge is a very bad idea....
You are likely overheating it... Hence the foil crumbling

You need a heat treating furnace
A kiln is for pottery
 
HSC /// said:
There’s two different foils available, one with a slightly higher temp rating
I think attempting to harden stainless steel in the Forge is a very bad idea....
You are likely overheating it... Hence the foil crumbling

You need a heat treating furnace
A kiln is for pottery
Click to expand...
Thanks for the input!
I did purchase the foil with the higher temp rating.
I agree that a forge isnt the best practice for hardening stainless and I am currently saving for a paragon heat treating furnace, they are just so many $$$$.
I might try at a lower temp and see how it goes.
thanks!
 
i have run the lower temt foil in my kiln at 2000F often and sometimes as high as 2050f no problem i think the blast of the burner is the issue and over heating it
 
I might try and sit the knife in the corner of the forge so it's underneath the burner. Should be slightly less hot and not having the burner directly hit it.
 
Saido_knives said:
I might try and sit the knife in the corner of the forge so it's underneath the burner. Should be slightly less hot and not having the burner directly hit it.
Click to expand...
If the burner is directly hitting the foil then it's absolutely going to be exceeding ~2000˚F. There's essentially no thickness and therefore no thermal-mass to stop it from getting too hot. If you hold a blow torch on a piece of foil you can get it red hot in an extremely short time, so imagine what's happening to a piece of foil in a full blown forge!
 
If I recall I think I’ve seen people use a metal pipe inside a forge then heat treat inside the pipe itself.
 
Last edited:
As Cristo said, a muffle pipe may help a good bit.
I will say - as a metallurgical principle, you should NOT do stainless HT is a forge. There are many reasons why it is a bad idea. Biggest one is there is no way you can have even and controlled temperatures. +/- 100 degrees may be hard to hold at 2000+ F. The second reason is there is no way you can hold an even temperature for 20/30/60 minutes.
As you already discovered, the foil will be toast ( literally).
 
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