temper color for stainless spring?

S

stezann

Joined
Apr 13, 2011
Messages
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Hallo,
i need the refence oxide color for tempering (around 1000-1100°F) a stainless slipjoint spring.
Up today i heat treated carbon steels, and drew the spring to blue with satisfactory results, but i guess stainless (12c28n) will react differently in terms of oxide colors due to the chrome. I have tc control in the forge, but can't get it running low for the temper, and i've got tc control for the oven, but it won't go up to 1000°F, so i need to torch temper the spring after the oven.
What color do you usually get in the stainless spring after tempering in your ovens?
Thank you for sharing this reference.

Stefano
 
You can't use color as an indicator on stainless.
Stainless requires professional heat treat in temperature controlled ovens.
 
Yes i know, and it is surely a wise word with stainless, so thank you.
I have heat treated stainless anyway, but i never had the necessity to temper springs since i'm new in the slipjoint world, so i'm not yet equipped.
Matter is i can't control temperature in the 1000°F range, and have to treat a spring this days. My forge can be run with a very steady temperature control, but in the 1000F range i noticed too much variation inside, hot and cold spots wich rend it inusable for the purpose.
my tempering oven is equipped with termocouples but won't reach 1000F, so that's it.
Please help me guess by the color, since i don't have any better mean right now, though i know very well it is almost a shoot in the dark.
 
In that case I would use the steel as-is. Unless it is annealed dead soft, most steel has some spring to it.
 
I temper my stainless springs at 1100 deg F for 2 hrs twice so tempering in a forge is not going to work for you.

You can make your blade out of stainless and make a high carbon spring.
 
Thanks for the replies :(
The annealed spring won't work, i get very sloppy action, it is a slipjoint, not a liner lock...even hardned and tempered to blue is taking new set and getting sloppy.
I will try again next time drawing less temper than i did today.
If everything goes wrong again i will listen to Chuck and go carbon with the spring, never failed with carbon steel, though the idea of using stainless in the blade, liners and bolster and using carbon for the spring doesn't sound appealing to me at all :(
 
It may not sound appealing but it would work. Would you rather put in the time and effort to make a stainless spring only to have it fail or a carbon spring and it works?
 
You are right, definitely.
I will try again though, because i think it is worth experimenting a little on this project. I do this thing for passion/hobby and i feel i could waste some steel and time (not so much anyway).
The carbon spring is already made and heat treated, so it's waiting aside, hoping to be chosen as soon as the chrome sister fails again.
I will update this thread to let you know the outcomes, sadly i bet you know the answer already ;)
Cheers

Stefano
 
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