To Heat Treat or not to Heat Treat

Laredo7mm

Laredo7mm

Joined
Jul 8, 2002
Messages
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Hey all, another off topic question for ya.

I have the damacus pieces for my next pen turned down to size and bored. This only leaves about a 0.020 wall thickness at the thinest point of one tube. The other is not tapered and has a consistant wall thickness of 0.036.

I was planning on heat treating the pieces but now I am wondering if that would be a good thing to do or not. That is thicker than what my blades are before HT, but it is just a rough finish from the drill bit on the inside diameter. Plus, I don't know what kind of distortion I will get from HT on my final turned dimensions. Right now I am as far away from perfect as I want to get, any more will degrade the fit and finish.

The only reason i wanted to was because I think HT'd damascus looks better when etched, than un HT'd material.

So, do I heat treat or not?
 
I think the guy to ask is David Broadwell. He makes cutom pens and knives both from D, and he'd have a good answer. He's got a website and contact info there, I believe.
Hope that may help, Sean.
 
Why do you need the pen to be hard. It will still etch whether it is hard or soft. It will etch differently but since it is all the same hardness, it won't make any difference. At least that is what I have found out about 52100 and 15N20 when using it to make some damascus jewelry. It may also depend on the mix that you use. I would try it and see how it works on a similiar piece. I use 3 parts distilled water and one part ferric chloride for my etchant mix.
 
Sean, I have to agree with your decision except that HT would help protect it from dings, scraps and such over the many decades a work like that should be used. :cool: Don't HT it.

Great looking work pal.
 
Hey Sean-

Sorry I missed this thread. I would have hardened it. I feel a hardened piece of steel will always take a prettier/nicer etch than a soft one.

But it would have been tricky with your pen!

Nick
 
I say heat-treat it too. I made a very small high heat salt pot and forge body made from a one gallon coffee can. It heats up in no time for gun parts and small blades. Distortion can be eliminated with the thermal cycles easily done in salt. Clean up is practically nill
 
I am going to try to do the HT on the next one. I will do the normalizing and HT in the salts and see what happens. Heck if it gets distorted then I can just anneal the tube, slit it, flatten it into sheet, and make some ear rings or barretts for my kid or some thing.

Hmmm, never thought much about jewelry making;) :confused: :D
 
Sean, I've done a few pendants. The damascus that would work the best would be something with a really small pattern or many layers. I found out that I lost alot of the damascus look with the larger pattens and the low layer damascus.
 
This is an arrow head pendant of 52100/15N20, 75 layers in a stretched out ladder pattern. The salt bath would definitely work on these after they are finished.
I hope the picture works.
 

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It seems intuitive for a knifemaker to harden the steel, but I agree that you are up against a couple of issues. I am most worried about the warpage and more - thin sections could crack / shatter. I had that happen when experimenting with ultra-thin slices of 1075 and L-6. Those were 3/64inch thick "plates" and as soon as I tried to quench in heated oil, the edge portion shattered even before I got the whole thing into the oil pot.

Another possibility - how 'bout, slowly heating it to critical then doing an air-hardening as if you were doing a normalising - just wave it around in the air. That would at least semi-harden it, especially if the section are thin. Just an idea. Jason.
 
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