Heat Treating, general discussion

Background: I recently tried to drill a 5/16" hole in a Nicholson (Made in USA) file that I had annealed. I heated the file to non-magnetic in my coal forge, soaking for about 10 minutes, tested with a magnet, and imbedded it in a bucket of vermiculite overnight as I have done many times over. I tested the annealed file with a regular file the next day, and a regular file cut it just fine. I used a center punch to start the bit (metal cutting HSS bit, 118* angle) and liberal WD-40 for lube. My drill press was set for the proper speed by drill bit tables. Since I had drilled lots of holes (mostly mild steel) with that setup, I anticipated no problems with the anneale…

Hello I've made myself a hammer head but I'm having a hard time Hardening it. So far I've tried quenching the faces in canola oil twice with no luck.. I know the face is to soft because I can dent the surface way to easily with even mild steel. The hammer head is made out of a pto shaft. Wish I had more info about the metal in terms of numbers but I got a picture of the grinder sparks if that helps. If anyone can tell me what I should do that would be awesome.

Good day to all. What would be the best process for heat treating 316 Stainless Steel ? I am going to make a punch out of the 316 using a 20mm round bar. Many thanks in advance. Please do not post everything in one thread. we have sections for topics , start by reading

At the risk of annoying the curmudgeons (I have read a lot about heat treatment, tempering etc. but there are lot of conflicting opinions), I just need to know if I'm on the right track to making the hammer punch I made serviceable. Most things I make don't require heat treatment, so I have little experience in this. In short - cherry red, water quench about 50mm up from the tip, shine, watch colours run, stop at ? I quenched it at a straw colour, as it looked like blue wasn't going to happen. A couple of questions if I may: Did I quench it too deeply from red? How far from the tip would be right? Is straw a bit too hard (brittle?) and should I reheat and s…

I was perusing the threads of the heat treating discussions and I have yet to come across a thread about this. I am considering the possibility of creating a wood fired tempering oven similar to a small outdoor brick pizza oven. Has anyone on here ever experimented with such a project and if so what were your results and could you comment your pictures on this thread? My main concerns are that there would be too inconsistent of a heat for tempering and that the oven wouldn't maintain the heat long enough to get a proper temper. Thanks in advance and happy forging.

I’ve seen mention several times about making a small bick using rail web and flange lately and decided I’d try again. (Charles mentioned it to me shortly after I joined IFI and I failed miserably on my first attempt) I took a short piece of rail to work to cut on our large bandsaw to save myself a headache trying to cut it with my limited tooling at home. When I finished cutting it I washed off the cutting fluid and noticed a line following the profile of the rail and it’s got me a little curious. Is this line evidence of the heat treatment? I know very little about the specifics of the metallurgy of rail but will be doing some more in depth searching to help figure out w…

Hi guys, I've looked around on the forum and through other sources, and haven't found this exact question answered, so I'll go ahead and ask. Yesterday I went through the process of trying to heat treat my anvil carved from railroad line (marked 1939). I've read many instructions on how to do it, including the oft quoted/referenced Weygers book, but have not seen this issue addressed... As instructed, I set my anvil upside down on the coals and then buried the striking surface. I covered the surface deep in super hot coals and had a hairdryer going on them just about constantly from all angles. As you'll see in the attached picture, I used pipes on one side…

I got my grandpa's tools when he passed away and I found a square stock of crucible Rex 49 what I gather from my research is that it's tool steel I was thinking of making either a hot cut chisel or a knife from it has anyone forged this steel before and know any heat treat info like air, oil, water quench and tempering and what temp for how long ECT Title edited to reflect common name of steel

I am information gathering at this point, I am trying to figure out what kind of metals I could for instance instead of quenching in oil I could quench in water instead. I do plan on making some of my own tools. I also plan on making some knives as well. How ever. I know oil is primarily best for quenching knives from my understanding. Now i know there are many posts on here stating that motor oil and used motor oil is basically a NO NO. How ever. Would Canola Oil work for quenching metal or is that just too different than many oils used in quenching. So with that being said is there any specific type of oil to use that anybody would recommend?

Glenn (GSTongs) talks about the benefit of heat treating his 1045 hammers heads twice in water to achieve the desired hardness. I’ve done this several times now as well and it does seem to yield harder faces/peens. I’d be interested to hear what others here have to say about this approach. Thanks in advance.

Does you oil need to be a certain temperature range? Where I live in the winter it can get well below 0 like -20 to -30 would I need to store my oil in a building that is heated or would it be fine to use it when it has been out in that cold of whether and not have negative results on the metal?

I am making tools etc out of an unknown carbon content steel. They are A 3/4” B 8” C 3’ grade 8 (I think) U Bolts used on fire truck suspension. They are painted and easily grind down to good usable steel. I have made several tools with this steel and quenched in Mineral Oil and Vegtable Oil. I’m confused has to why the Mineral Oil was useless while quenching and the Vegatable Oil seemed to harden the steel properly. Anybody have any clue to the difference in these two oils and the carbon content in these u-bolts? I have tried to research the carbon content online without any luck. Not really that important cause they are making good tools but it would be nice to know wha…

What is happening to the metal? Some kind of lattice change that only melting resolves? Can it become "burnt" in an inert atmosphere (is it oxidizing)? Does pure iron do it (or does it somehow involve the carbon)?

I got a question. does anyone know what a kolene heat treat does? From what i understand it is heat treating in molten salt. Why i ask is that today i got a set of steels for a TH 400 that were kolene treated and my customer asked if it were worth the extra money he spent on them. I do not know how they will preform but it seems to me that they may be too hard. Looking on my motor headin forums gets me mixed reviews on how they preform but nothing as to specs on differences. If they are too hard i am afraid that the clutches will not grab them and will slip, burning up my unit. If they are not hard enough they will just wear out. Standard steels are high carbon hardened s…

I have some old Snap-On tools that I want to forge into center punches my Snap on guy tells me that they use a special steel that is only available to Snap on. So my question is has anyone ever heat treated snap on tools. Now normally I only use new steels that I know what they are and how to heat treat but I thought this would be cool to keep in my tool box and for my employees also seeing as all of us only use snap on tools it would be nice to have hand made repurposed snap on punches. Would I use oil quench ? or water ?

Hello, all, I was reading a post on a welding forum where a guy needed to make a custom wrench for a specific application, so he ended up welding a socket onto the end of a combination wrench. In his photo, you could see the Heat Affected Zone near the weld (on the right-hand side of the wrench in the photo), which made me wonder whether the heat would have removed the hardening/tempering of the steel in the HAZ, and made the steel there weaker, by annealing or normalizing it. (I'm not sure you'll be able to view the photo without registering at the other forum, so I've attached it below in the belief that its creator would not mind me doing so.) I have chrome-vanad…

I'm looking for some ideas on creating a better quenching tank. I have an old Oxygen D tank that was cut open, it works "OK" but have knocked it over a few times (glad it only had water in it). Looking to see what everyone else came up with. Don't really wanna go the 5 gal bucket route tho but...

I have been working on a hammer head while I try out my new gas forge. The material is 4142 1 1/2" square stock. I started with a 2lb. piece with 2 offset holes drilled to help guide the punch. My wife held the stock and punch while I swung the sledgehammer. The hole punched well, but I didn't have a hardy hole. My current anvil is a 3x8x13" piece of S7 with a couple different radii cut and shaped on the ends similar to Brian Brazeal. If you're wondering why the odd alloys, there was a crazy sale I got in on with our local group. I took it to a class I was helping with, and worked on drifting it during the lunch break. The anvils were too high to get a good swing at,…

Being a newish smith I need tooling. Easiest to get it is buying it or making. With no budget I therefore make my own. I bought a great big cold chisel from princess auto (Canadian habour freight) (The chisel in question:<link removed>) , forged it, ground it, and attempted to harden it. First in a Synthetic machine oil, it being still soft I restarted from square one (Anneal, temperature cycle ect...) I then tried a room temperature water quench. It was slightly harder but still too soft to keep a chisel edge. According to this Bladesmithforum thread (<link removed>)(ps. Mods I don't know If I'm allowed to link to outside forums. please do let me know if I'…

Hello all. I'm looking to know is it possible to quench in vegetable oil and or frying oil . Have the availability of both just don't know if any good and wouldn't use unless it was. Thanks Gareth.

hello all, i am new in metal heat treatment process. i would like to know is there any way to reduces TAN at quenching oil?

I'd be interested in learning the pros and cons of tempering to about 400 degrees Fahrenheit by immersing the work in a pot of heated oil. You could measue the temperature of the oil with a deep frying thermometer of maybe a thermocouple . There are plenty of oils (peanut oil, soybean oil, etc.) with smoke points higher than 400 degrees. Thanks

I presume this has been posted before, but fun watching this historical primer again:

Hi everybody, Who knows this Steel? Heat treatment ? I just know ,it's tool for a lathe Thanks

Hello, I'm just barely getting started down the forge road. Plan on finishing my makeshift anvil tonight. Making a 55 forge (actually a 30 forge..lol) this weekend. I'm trying to do everything with minimal expense. Anyway..my real question today is.. Would water based machine tool coolant/cutting fluid work well as a quench for "cheap" steels like 1075? My company actually makes the stuff and I could get a few gallons of concentrate for about nothing. My thought is it must be slower than water though not as slow as canola (which is my next best cheap quench from what I've read) and it's not going to flare up. The main components of …