temering and tools

[samw1]

Hey ive been trying to remember all the temper colers and there uses(like what color to temper what). i know for chisles its a straworange, but i tried to remember knives and blades and just couldent figure it out. i also am haveing trouble with makeing a few tools.
Here is the list
- Tongs,
- cut off hardy
- spring fuller
- flater
- hardy fuller
- and a bickern.
if some one could help me out it would be apritiated.

[Rich Hale]

Hrdening and tempering is done according to need and materials. For the most part if you use steel without carbon a heat treatment is not needed. Bp0087 has a lot of material in it and may help get you in the right direction. It may be too much too soon. Stick with one material at a time and learn what it will do and how to treat it. Most of the things youlisted could be made from mild steel the cut off needs some carbon. Work with mild a while and see what youi can do with it and wheer it comes ups short as far as what you want. Then move onto medium carbon steels.

[matt87]

Temper colours are an indication of the temperature that piece of steel has reached (see Steel Tempering). However, you could have a chisel made from 1040 and one from 1095 both hardened and tempered to the same colour but they would be different hardness. If you want an actual hardness (e.g. a Rockwell number) you have to look it up. Temper Colors and Steel Hardness : anvilfire.com

It is your job to choose how to temper your products and there are many factors involved -- the tool's intended use, that steel's composition, the realities of how that tool might be used, whether the tool is solid tool steel or the edge/face is laid onto wrought iron or mild steel, what are the acceptable tolerances? Is it better to have a hammer face that might slump or chip? Will this knife be used as a pry bar or a spade or a hammer, or as a surgical scalpel?

What are the problems you are having making those tools?

[ThomasPowers]

Yes; *anybody* who tells you that such and such a tool needs to be tempered to such and such a colour *without* referencing what alloy it's made from is completly bogus!

It would be fairly easy for me to make a punch out of two different alloys and one would be tempered at 375 degF and the other at over 750 degF for the exact same tool.

[philip in china]

So in other words unless you know exactly what steel you are using you need to do it through trial and error.

Here we NEVER know what the composition of steel is. Most of what we use is scrap and most of that is rebar which is notoriously fickle. So we just test a piece. Make a simple chisel out of a piece, heat to say cherry and quench in water. Try to cut a piece of steel with it. If it cuts go ahead and make your hardie the same way. If it doesn't then try straw and then quench etc. etc. It is time consuming but interesting and you will learn a lot.

If you are using scrap have a look at junk yard rules on anvilfire. It is a useful article. Also remember that if you use rebar it is NOT usually made to a specific grade so can be anything (and usually is). A melt of steel strange to say doesn't make a homogenous mass so the same length of rebar can be hard at one end, very hard at the other and like toffee in the middle. It makes for an interesting life!

[samw1]

thanks for the advice, its kinda going to be hard for me to find out what steel is what, but i have a lot of knew rrspike of difrent carbon content and im going to try and find somd mild steel to use. and one more question( i think) dose everyone memerize the types of steel?

[matt87]

If you have an electric grinder you can try spark-testing (see BP20).

[Francis Cole]

they make temp pens mark the piece of metal heat it and when the mark melts you are there quench it. The are fool proof and can pick them up from your welding supplyer many different temp ranges for sale

[ThomasPowers]

Types of steel? Stainless (low and high carbon; regular steel (low, medium and high carbon)
High Alloy steels (most not usable by the general smith)

or do you mean what may be made from what steel, like car springs from 5160, files from W1, etc?

[JosephPrivott]

One consideration is to make the tool a little bit soft if you don't know what it is. That way you'll notice it wearing instead of noticing it shatter. A bent bickern or soft hardy is a lot easier to re-treat than re-forge

Also, update where you are located by going to the user CP in the upper right hand corner of the page. This way someone might be closer than you think, and can help you!