Heat Treating, general discussion

Hi guy's, have a hardening question figured I would get some opinions seeing as it is an area I don't have too much experience. I have a piece of steel, no idea what grade it is but I want to harden it so I can use it as an anvil of sorts for sheetmetal work. It is 2" thick and 4" round and basically solid, it does have a oil galley machined into it, but still basically a solid piece of steel. What would you suggest for hardening? Thanks, welder19

Howdy all, I have recently starting making a number of tools for myself. Various punches, hand fullers, etc.. I have used old coil springs for the material. I believe I understand the steps involved in heat treating, however I have never done it before, and I do have one question. I am planning on heating to non magnetic, then quenching in 3 gallons of veggie oil (in a metal container with a metal lid). I'll use some files to test it. I'm assuming I want to temper it to a purple or bronze color on the business end of the tool. So here is my question.. What is the best way to apply heat for tempering? I have read about the one heat method, where you quench only…

How can a part of a piece of mild steel becomes hard without me tempering it?? More details: I took that piece of mild steel from an old metal fence in a farm. I believe it is mild steel, and very mild for that because it bends veery easily, is cut with my hack saw very easily and a file bites in it like teeth in butter. Now I make a nice hot charcoal fire, put there my 1" by 1/4" section of material, and taking it out after some time I notice that it looks as if it had melted. I do not pay much attention, though I'm a bit surprised since I've got red hot steel or iron before but never melted iron. Maybe this was only a partial melt, on the surface. Back home (I do …

I have a question about brazing and heat treating, in relation to early barrel padlocks. I was looking at this picture in Bomlin's member gallery: http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/data/588/Roush3.jpg The spring appears to be brazed onto the locking mechanism. But therein lies the Catch-22. Any hardening and tempering done before brazing would be lost during brazing, and attempting to harden after brazing would probably allow the braze to flow out of the joint. Riveting isn't an option because of the form the key must take. Any suggestions? Am I completely off base thinking that the brazing will fail if I try heat treating the spring?

I'm having problems getting the correct temper on my strikers. I use plain water for the quench. Could that be part of the problem?

Heres my problem. I am building fish gigs,and I called all around to find really good hard steel plating and was told to use AR400 by several steel places. The steel is not hard enough, it will not hold its point if it hits rock a couple of times. I have a gig here from a local fellow that will hold its point if it hits rock, but he won't tell me the type steel he used. My gigs are cut out with a plasma cutter. Is the heat from the plasma cutter tempering my steel back some? If so or if not so, can I heat treat this type steel and harden it, and then temper it? And at what temps do I use? I have an electric oven that will go to 2200 degrees. I am hoping oil quench will wo…

Can stainless rod be hardened by heat treating and quenching in oil or water? I think its 304 . Thanx for any feedback.

I wanted to temper a hammer punch that was forged for me as a demo. It is made of a piece of S-7 rod that I bought on EBay. When I got home, I snap temtered it with a propane torch, and the end still skated a file. So, it certainly was air hardening. Tempering S-7 requires several minutes at at least 1000F. This is difficult to do in the traditional manner (letting the colors run, then quenching). This temperature is well past light blue, and there is a grey sheen oxide coating, but not scale. I tried using an old toaster oven. This was just too scary. To get to 1000F, I disabled the thermostat and filled in both sides with rock wool. This would supposedly prot…

I took a piece of steel( not sure of grade ) that was for lack of measurements, shaped like your hand , it was a fish gig, and 1/4" thick. I heated it red over a propane burner outside and then dipped it in vegetable oil. If anything what did this do to it? I could still file the points fairly easy. Just playing with this till, I get an oven and the right oil.I was curious to see if it would change it alot. Thanx, Cooter P.S. It will ring for over 15 seconds if you strike it, sorta like a tuning fork.

For some more than basic heat treating info this is a good read http://web.utk.edu/~kjohann1/mse201/lab4.pdf Jens

OK, the main reason I wanted a forge is to make some tools up. One that I made recently was a curved bowl rest for my wood lathe......... I made this one out of 1" thick mild steel, I've used it a lot and it works well, so far, but to bend a piece, I needed to use the 3/4" stock. Here is a pic, at the time, I did not have a forge, only two propane burners, little ones, and I could only get one small section of the piece somewhat hot, so the bend is not the best, but it works.... Now that I have a forge, I will make another one, and I'll even try for an "S" curve. Now, this is just mild steel, I would really like to make this the best I can, can I harden it i…

Hi, I just saw a recently posted gallery pic from Oakwoodforge about heat treating in a tube. I'm curious - is this a method specific to charcoal forges and what are the pros and cons to it. Thanks for any responses. Jason

Hello All- Apologies if I seem unfamiliar with the terms of hardening metal- I'm pretty new to this whole thing, so.. Here's my conundrum: I am building a device to roll 3/4" fire hose. Currently it's done by hand and can be rather tedious. We double-roll it, so the middle is found, it's folded over on itself & the roll started from there. Now my idea is to take a piece of 5/16 round stock & cut a slot down the middle as seen in this drawing: Attach a handle to this piece like a crank and with the appropriate mount & such, one side of the hose is placed in the slot, the handle turned, and the hose will wind itself around the 'business end' of the de…

Hello, I was under the impression that you should anneal a piece of high carbon steel before you shape it into some thing like a punch or chisel. I found a web site that said to shape it, then anneal it, then normalize it, then temper it. I can't find the site now. (I thought I BM it.) I take my RR spikes and such and anneal them, then I shape them. Then I normalize overnight. Then I do any cleaning, grinding, or marking. Then I temper. I seem to have good luck with my setup. Do I need to change it or do you guys have any suggestions for me. I've just been quenching in plain old water. I've heard of "superquench", should I be using that or what? I've ha…

Hello, My reenactor customer really likes the size of the flint strikers I'm making, but I'm having a problem getting a consistant spark from them. I'm using a 3/16" dia garage door spring for one size and a 5/16" dia coilover spring off of a car shock. The smaller dia material is real difficult to get right but I'm having better luck with them than I'm having with the bigger material. but going by color as I temper the bigger material, I'm getting a more consistant color through out the piece, but not a spark one. My customer wants them to spark a lot as he likes to work with kids at the rendezvous as they visit and show them how the mountianmen started their cam…

Hi! Can anybody recommend me an informative website or a book about the way and different purposes of tempering? Thank you! :D