W1 heat treat question

[Jay Mulcahy]

I have a question about the best way to heat treat/temper W1. A neighbor knows I mess around with steel and gave me a tube of drill rods. The tube is labeled Carpenter Green Label Drill Rods, water hardening, AISI W1. There are about a dozen rods aprx 1/8" square stock. I was thinking I could make up some scratch awls or tools for trying scrimshaw from them, as they are too small for anything else. Can anyone tell me the best way to heat treat and temper this steel for this purpose? Thanks for your help.

 

[Raymond Richard]

Sounds like you got enough to experiment with. I'd just use a propane torch to do all the heat treating for something that small. Try both water and oil for hardning and also use the torch to draw back. For what your wanting a little less than full hard should work fine.

 

[Don Hanson III]

Heat to nonmagnetic hold for a bit then quench in a fast oil or water. I would not quench a knife blade in water but a small square like this would survive a water quench and harden up very hard. Temper at 350 for an hour for a high RC hardness or 400 to 450 for a lower RC hardness but tougher condition.

 

[Jay Mulcahy]

Guys, thanks for the info. I messed around with some this afternoon. Forged round and then tapered to a point, heat to nonmagnetic and quenched in water. Into the toaster oven at 425 for 1 hr, came out very hard, a file barely takes off steel. Seems like some tough stuff!