Use of Forge to heat-treat and quench?

D

DaQo'tah Forge

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Hi this is DaQo'tah

I was right in the middle of useing my O/A torch to heat-treat the cutting section of my blade before I quench the lower 1/3 of the blade in heated Texaco quenching oil..when I ran out of gas...


As it was Sunday night and all the stores were closed, I decided to try to use my gas forge to heat the blade for the quench.

I heated the full blade, except for the tang, to red hot, then quenched the lower 1/3 of the blade in oil.

YES!, there was some fire,,,I was very busy tring to both fight the fire as I dipped the red hout blade in the quenching oil, and yet not bump the blade as I quenched it.


QUESTION:,,,Did my quench work?


Does anyone else use a forge to heat the hole blade, before just quenching the cutting edge?

Does this type of heat-treating have problems?
 
Yes, me.
Indicatively the edge becomes non magnetic much earlier than the rest of the blade.
On strong thickness you may want to use water as oil becomes a little weak, while the red-hot spine transfers heat to the edge.
I did this on a forged knife with a very short and thick blade, and it got out a tad too soft at about 50-52 HRC.
I think you should compensate with a lighter temper.
My other knives were completely plunged in oil for quench and then
tempered and softened on the spine with a torch while keeping the edge in water.
 
DaQo'Tah, Don't know your forge configuration but if you can fit a rectangular piece for tubing in the opening the length of the forge use this as an internal oven. Wait till the tubing gets up to forge temp place your blade in the tubing spine side down hold on with your tongs . It wont take long to come up to temp. You'll notice this accomplishes two things. One your get a more even gentle heat and you keep the the blast of the forge burnner off the blade. Hope this helps.

Michael
 
Michael Vagnino...

okay,,,,interesting, I would never have thought about that tubing idea...

Now, okay I can change things to make the heating of the blade easyer,,,BUT,,,,Man!,,,when i quenched I had fire-fire-fire!....I became one very busy guy for the few moments that I was rocking the blade in the oil......the fire would start, the moment I placed just the tip in the oil....

I would then count to,,,oh,,,5?. then rock the rest of the cutting edge into the oil,,,more fire, But I would be able to blow it out,,,
But then I would raise the blade up to get the tip in the oil again, and MAN!, did the fire get going!


this went on this way until all the red was out of the blade,,,,,

Im sure that if other Knife makers quenched their blades that way i did,,,,there would be fewer knife makers left....

I really need to think over my quench system....
 
:D I couldn't even read past the part where you were too buisy fighting fires and trying to take care of the blade all at the same time:D :D :D . I did the same thing only worse, I think.

Keep em'coming DaQo.
 
Sounds OK to me. I don't edge quench, but don't usually don't get the handle down into the tank and you get some fairly good flames.
Rather than try to worry about putting the fire out, just let it burn provided its not burning you. Concentrate on holding the blade where you want it. Have a sheet of plywood or something handy that will completely cover the top of your quench tank, and if the fire gets out of control or doesn't go out when you take the blade out, or completely submerge it you can use it to smother the fire.
 
just let it burn, it will go out. if it doesn't do like matt said and cover it. (just do not pull out the red hot knife and spread burning oil...bad!)

:eek:
I heat my oil with a big chunk of red hot leaf spring, real pretty flames but they go out once the metal cools.:)

dan
 
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