Heat Treating, general discussion

Should i heat treat and or temper a hammer after it has been forged and grinded? The alloy will either be 1045 or 4140 or whatever car axle is available. And if so, how? Thanks!

First of all, I have no idea what I'm doing, so I'm sorry if this is a dumb question. I heated a piece of mild steel bar stock 1" X 1/4" X 12", bent the end to a 90 degree angle, then tried to drill a hole in it (yep, should have done that first), and I can't seem to get it done. The drill bit doesn’t make much headway, then just becomes worthless. I'm thinking that I may have inadvertently heat treated the metal by not cooling it properly. My question is this: How can I un-treat the metal so that it won't be so darned hard to drill? Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

I'm wondering about case coloring original old wrought iron. I don't know a lot about it, but from what I'm gathering is the wrought iron (being fairly soft with low carbon content) was case hardened to give the exterior surface some hardness. Anyone ever try W.I. for this process?

Can't remember or find what threads they were but somewhere on here, a few people told me some info I was wrong about. I'm reading about it elsewhere and want to make sure I have the right info. One subject was the matter of case hardening. Example was from "A birth of a sword" where they say mechanical fullering of a blade removed a hardened layer from the blacksmith hammering on it. This is why mechanical fullering was garbage and not authentic. A few people on here said BS, but i'm reading and experience it a bit. I'm looking at this http://ethesis.nitrkl.ac.in/1138/1/Heat_Treatment_of_Low_Carbon_Steel.pdf When you work with mild steel/copper it hardens as you…

Over the past few weekends, I've been "apprenticing" under a local woodsmith/blacksmith who has been gradually introducing me to the many facets of this trade. One book he gave me to read is one I'm sure you're familiar with; Practical Blacksmithing, cataloged by M.T. Richardson. In chapter IV, Steel and its Uses, there is an article name "To Temper Steel Very Hard." It goes on to say: "the most effective liquid is the only liquid metal-mercury. This being a good conductor of heat, in fact the very best liquid conductor, and the only cold one, appears to be the best on for hardening steel-cutting tools. The best steel, when forged into shape and hardened in mercu…

I would not know the science of a flame but when I run my coal forge the coal burns at the hottest white and the metal is white hot I will have to look closer tomorrow. also when I keep the fire yellow the heat of the metal is a saturated yellow. this is out of wikipedia I see no blue on this list. Temperatures of flames by appearance The temperature of flames with carbon particles emitting light can be assessed by their color:[10] Red Just visible: 525 °C (980 °F) Dull: 700 °C (1,300 °F) Cherry, dull: 800 °C (1,500 °F) Cherry, full: 900 °C (1,700 °F) Cherry, clear: 1,000 °C (1,800 °F) Orange Deep: 1,100 °C (2,000 °F) Clear: 1,200 °C (2,200 °F) White Whitish: 1,300 °C (2,…

hi, me again. ive been reading a lot about quenching oils and how using oils can be more benefitial to the metals than just water. i've looked around for my own oils and i've got to say...around my area their a bit more expensive than i'd like so my question is this: can i use just any oil for quenching or does it need to be specific? better yet what do you use?

I have googled and read that many previous outfits that carried it, no longer carry it. Does anyone have a reliable source for Parks #50 quenching oil? I would prefer this over the 11-second quench found at Mcmaster Carr. Thanks.

Can antifreeze be used as a quenching fluid?

Howdy again, We've been working with grain direction in materials science this week, the same used on turbine blades and aircraft parts to get the max strength. A few of us wanted to try testing what this process does and doesn't do for steel, and whether it can actually be done on a forge. Thing is, we've only gone into the chemical concepts on atomic bonding and grain patterns, so we're not subject matter experts... My question for you guys: Has anyone ever tried doing a heat treating to produce a 'parallel' grain structure? I realize it's one of those less-than-microscopic things that's only a tiny bit beneficial, but it'd be interesting to try. The ex…

Having a problem with the working end of my tools not seeming hard enough. When I push a file accross the end, it wants to bite more than skip, and when put into hot work use, they don't seem to hold their edge for too long. A few more details; I let the tool soak in my forge at an orange, non magnetic temp before plunging into a water quench and use a map gas torch on the non business end to run the colors before quenching again. I have been told that placing the tool in a 400 degree oven for 1 hour afterwards helps, but I didn't think it was necessary. Is this a question of letting the color band run up too far or not enough, or am I missing something?

Looking for a simple way to heat treat S7 for punches. All the results I read from Google talked about holding at temp1, then temp2..... then cooling 100 degrees at a time, etc. Anyone have a simpler way to harden truck coil springs? Tried taking from non-magnetic, quick dunks to black, then air cooling. I know one way that DOESN'T work :) Dave

Decided to make a die for forging bowls and came across a 6" diameter 3" thick piece of 4140 cheap. I machined the top and bottom for different size top dies. Having never heat treated anything this large, I've got a few questions.....How long a soak at high heat (1550F) ? Should I water quench or use the six gallons of aviation hydraulic fluid that I have? Is 6 gallons enough?? Any other suggestions are appreciated.............

I am seriously looking into making some new dies for my power hammer using H13 but understand the necessity for heat treatment. My question is where can I buy a gas forge thermometer, it is obviously necessary to know the temperature. I live in france but would buy worldwide. Also what scale degree Fahrenheit or Celsius would be needed? Confused.com!!!

Hello everyone. I have a very old framing slick with a socket that needs to be bent to a useable angle. There is a stamp on the blade saying cast steel. Can I bend this like mild steel? Are there any special precautions I should take? Really, the body of the slick looks like all of the other old chisels, wrought iron. Thanks for any suggestions, Bryan

Forged a flatter from 4140 this weekend. After hardening in peanut oil what temp should I temper it? I'm planning on oven tempering.

I have a good selection of ETD 150 in 5/8 round that I am hoping to make eye punches and other struck tooling with. It's a 150,000 yield material, so should be pretty tough in this application. It takes a little work to forge out but I am managing. My question is the best way to quench and temper this material. Its a medium carbon steel, but a somewhat proprietary alloy is what my Google searches have been coming back with. Anyone have any thoughts or comments? Thanks in advance Brian

Hey all again, So I've been asking around, and noones heard of nanotubes. Not my paps as a welder, not my engineering professors or buddies, not machinists, just one fella. He insists that good tempered steel will have smaller carbon nanotubes or something. Well it doesn't seem like common knowledge, especially if the main resource for info on it is a wikipedia article. So, what the heck is it? I know they X-ray welds for certifications before they bearing test them and cut em. Are they looking for this mythical carbon nanotube? I figure if it's not a chapter in my 'strengths and materials' book for next semester, it can't be all that important... Just a frien…

Hello All, I found this chart years ago in a 1940's era book on steel. I have found it useful for estimating forces needed for some operations. Ric

I have no oil for quenching some 5160 steel. First, what are common quenching oils for 5160 steel that are easily available. One that I can go purchase tomorrow and doesn't cost a great deal for 5 gallons. I have read many internet sites and there are many recommendations. I need to get started with some reasonably good oil. The other issue is where to purchase or obtain such oil?

I recently finished machining bases (dovetail inserts with threaded holes to attach dies) and a set of combo dies from 4140 and was looking to see if anyone has experience with heat treating dies.

This is the first time I've considered working with tool steel and I was wondering how best to proceed. The other day, I got a very good deal on an 87 pound round of 8620 steel. It measures 4.25" in diameter and is 9.50" tall. I was thinking of using it as a portable pounding/shaping surface. I know this steel is often case hardened, but I don't yet know it it's annealed, hardened, tempered. It's been around for awhile. Just this morning I managed to remove the rust pitting and something that looked like fairly thick millscale. That seems to tell me this has been through some sort of heating process. I can ask the people where I bought it how they sell this type of st…

Anyone heat treat or temper with Tempilstiks? or use them for anything? :D I thought they could be nice when getting the hang of new steels. thx in advance

So a few years ago I bought a stainless steel box 9"x18"x22" for about $10. I put it storage and forgot about it until I was looking for my torch set. I got to thinking about what I could do with it and thought maybe it would be good for a quench tank.What do yall think?

First off I will say that this has nothing to do with knives, but it does have to do with heat treating. I am planning a project where I need to forge my own leaf spring. I'm thinking of forging it out of steel(i got it at homedepot so i don't know what kind it is) into the shape I need(which is tapering both ends of the steel then putting a bow into it). My question would be how can I get the most spring into it? I want it to be able to bend and return to the original shape with out it breaking or loosing the shape I forged it into. Feel free to ask any questions if it would help be able to answer my question. Since this is not about blades, I will relocate it to…