W1 heat treat in coal forge?

[adelphos]

I only have a coal forge at the moment so when I was doing 1075,1084 I had no problems. Now I would like to move on to W1 but not sure if I can. I haven't seen any heat treating specs for a long soak on it so I thought maybe this is possible to do.

I have heard putting salt on it will help to tell me when I am at the correct temp of 1475 due to that being the melting point.

So in short what do you think?

Quenching in mcmaster carr 11sec quench btw in case anyone is interested.

 

[Bo T]

W1 is a steel that can be anywhere from 60 points to 140 points of carbon. It might have some chromium and/or some vanadium. If you aren't sure forge out some small test pieces and start by treating like 1095. You will need to get it a tad bit hotter than your 1084 and hold at that temperature for several minutes before your quench. See how easily your test piece breaks and check for grain size. If you get good results, try the technique you use on 1084 on another piece. If it doesn't work treat another piece a couple of shades hotter and check again.