Tripple quench, once and for all. Maybe

AmP....

to make sure you understand what I am doing, and when,,,I need to say this again,,,please read this,,,then give me all your thoughts,,,I seek understanding and knowledge and points of view,,,,,you all are my teachers,,,


Okay,,,while Im still busy working the blade into shape with my forge and hammers, I have started to just stop and do a quench in cold oil that is out side in the 6-inch pipe...( I have read it might help with grain growth)

BUT,,,,,but this quenching is way different than when I quench later in my normal quench-tank, when I try to make the blade hard.....

the 6-inch pipe quench is way before the Heat-treatment quench,,,,days before,,,,I still have to finish forgeing the steel after I take the blade out of the 6-inch pipe quench, and I still have to Normalize the steel, and I still have to Anneal the steel and then use my beltsander on the steel to turn it into a knife....

THEN,,,,then when Im all done with all that stuff...(days later), , then I heat-treat in the normal heated quench tank that is right next to my forge,


Now as to the time it takes to run to the outside tank?....well...correct,,,but at this stage in the work on this blade Im not all that interested in making the blade hard am I?

I guess I could put the 6-inch pipe tank right next to the door of my shop,,,that should work,,,But I have not understood that this was yet a concern at that stage in the work.....Have I misunderstood this?
 
Sorry, I misunderstood, I thought it was your final quench you were refering to. I think a quench part way through the forging process might help grain size, but the risk of it cracking makes it not worthwhile in my mind, especially since depending on how much more forging needs to be done to it, it might undo the grain smallerizing. Normalizing helps with grain size and it relieves stress rather then causing it like a quench. If it seems to make a better blade for you then go for it, just know that you're adding another chance of ruining it.
 
"smallerizing" ? now that's a new word. DF, normalizing gives you a structure of pearlite while annealing gives you sheroidized carbide .I don't know how different they are as far as grinding ,experiment . After grinding normalizing isn't necessary ,just stress relieve, ~1200F ~30 min.....Terry soak 10 min for normalize, same for sheroidize but there cool slowly in ashes.
 
I might say something about quenching oil catching fire. Brownells Tough quench does not catch on fire if the blade is heated to non-magnetic. If I get the blade too hot before quenching then the Brownells Tough Quench does flare up. This lets me know if I have over heated the blade.
At least that has been my experience.
 
tom....

Speaking of "fire",,,I have a story to write in the morning about what went on tonight out in my forge.....

I almost had a very bad day,,,,very very bad......

I will post as soon as Im able to think of an interesting way to tell everyone what happend...
 
Mete, could you explain to me a little about what the difference would be in a piece of 1095 that was soaked at 855 degrees Celcius (1575 degrees farenheight) for 30 seconds, then let cool, then heated to 800 degrees celcius (1480 degrees farenheight) for 30 seconds, then quenched in veggie oil, and of course tempered (more interested in what state the steel is in after the quench cycle at this point), as compared to a piece of 1095 that is soaked at 829.44 degrees celcius (1525 degrees farenheight) for 10 minutes, then let cool, then heat at the same temp (829.44 degrees farenheight) for 10 minutes, then quenched in veggie oil (what would be the differences in the steel at this point before the temper? is it just that the carbides have not all dissolved? will the totally dissolved carbides make it stronger or more brittle?
 
With the 10 minute soak (either one or two quenchings ) you will get proper dissolving and diffusing of the carbides. This means full strength martensite and a homogenious structure. A nonhomogenious structure will produce stresses in the steel and may contribute to warping or worse...Here's an example - in large sections of tool steel the center is not homogenious. We had a customer who had made a donut shaped die , he then wanted to use the center portion . We told him no but he used it any way.When he quenched it , it exploded into about 100 pieces ! Quenching stresses, especially tool steel , can be very high. They are enough to warp and even crack the steel so don't put any extra stresses into the blade.
 
Does the required soak time go down as the cross sectional thickness goes down? Or would just the ramp time tend to go down since the piece would come up to temp faster?
 
With typical blade thicknesses there should be differences in ramp time but not soak times. Clay will certainly increase ramp time a bit and perhaps soak too.
 
Da Quo tah, you sure have an interesting life.
Speaking of "fire",,,I have a story to write in the morning about what went on tonight out in my forge.....
Click to expand...
'hope all is well. Great things are born of great travail.
 
Does the soak time have to be all at once? Do the normalizing heats contribute to the soak time?
 
Normalizing gives you pearlite (ferrite+cementite),subsequent austenitizing has to have a soak to dissolve those carbides (cementite).The practice , by some, of hardening three times gives you three short soaks which would tend to be equivalent to one longer soak.
 
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