Heat Treating, general discussion

Would you recommend heat treating a 1045 hammer drift in any way, normalize it, or nothing at all? Thanks.

Made my better half a bracelet out of chainsaw chains forge welded together. I did not heat treat. As I was cruising YouTube I've heard that heat treating enhances the pattern. Is that true? So much info out there is less than true to false. The pattern is nice after etch but not real defined. Ferric chloride was used. As this was a first I have to do a little tweaking. Papy

Sorry if this was covered, if it is I couldn't find it. I was recently given a coil spring. He said it was from Toyota tundra. Having worked with spring steel, I was confident I could make some nice knines. I hot cut a small price to test the steel. Problem is that I can't get this spring to harden. File bites easily I to it. I first quenched in oil, twice. Thinking it may be .your oil, I got new oil. Still too soft. Finally I tried a brine ( salt water) quench with the same results. Has anyone worked with coil springs?

I looked it up on google but I get very conflicting answers. I remember hearing (at some point in my sgort inexperienced life haha) that you could add carbon to steel by heating it up and dipping it in sugar. I am not plannong on doing this I am just curious if it is possible to do? Thanks for yall's time and apologies if there is already a post about this and I missed it. Also not sure if this is the correct place to ask. Would one of the moderators be so kind as ti move it for me if it is the wring place?

In an auction buy a few years ago, I got about 60 lbs of HSS (M2) drill blanks as just an aside in a box with something else I was bidding on. They've been handy when I need a ground bar or pin but I haven't actually "made" something of any of them. They're typically in the 3/8" dia range with some larger and smaller. Reading up on heat treat of M2, it's kind of a pain to do..that is if you do it right. What I'm asking about is doing it wrong--the simplistic no brainer way. I'm not looking for perfection, just "serviceable" for simple tooling like the oddball punch or small chisel type thing here and there. Before I experiment re-inventing the wheel, I was w…

Explaining the real basics for the beginners out there. Cheers Andy

Got a nice hexagonal piece of steel that was tested and came back as LA C steel ( thanks to my son the engineer) . The detail analysis shows the largest concentration ( .0751) of Chromium. I would like to forge some of it into a rounding hammer as well as a punch. My plan would be to heat it to lemon yellow, forge it and then quench it in oil? Thanks

I am building an anvil from fork lift fork or 4140. The dimentions will be 5 in wide 8 in high 15 in long with out the horn. the horn will be turned down from a large catipilar bucket pin and welded on after the HT. I will be constructing the ASO by cutting several sections of 4140 at about 6 in long drilling several holes in them and stacking them side by side preheating and plug wedling. Along with chamfering the seams and welding all the way around. Then plug welding using hardface rod and welding the 15 in face to the welded body. I then will have the top machined flat then using coal heating to critical and water quenching. I know that generally 4140 is a oil quenchi…

I was recently on the Anvil section of the forums asking about replace a cast iron face with an steel one. I haven't quite yet decided on whether I will or not. However I am leaning towards not replace the cast iron face. Now my issue with the cast iron face is just how soft it is. I realize that sounds a little bit strange however it dents rather easily, (I was under the impression that Cast Iron was very brittle not soft.) So I was wondering if possibly when I refinished the anvil face with a Angle grinder I might have undone whatever temper there was on it. (Not knowing too to much about proper anvil care at the time) What's your take on it. Attached is a p…

OK, so first post! I have gained x20 4lb lump hammers which were going to be chucked because they are waaay too hard! Now I will be keeping a couple as Hammers and that's fine I can reset and bring to a more acceptable level of toughness. However my anvil died after a valiant effort considering it was cast iron! Is it plausible to forge weld the heads into a larger chunk of steel? I do not need anything fancy anvil wise but I do need something and waiting for a suitable chunk of steel or anvil is breaking me! If you need mastersmith skills for this then suggest other uses because I'm a learner working my way through making the tools for my workshop(tongs,chisel etc…

I'm interested in hearing from folks who've had experience using "Goddard's Goop" (solid or semi-solid mixtures of wax and oil). I know @John McPherson uses it, but I'd like to hear from him and others how well they find it works. Thanks.

A month ago I contacted Tempil to see if they planned on making a new batch of posters.. After a few emails they said " No".. Not in the foreseeable future.. So, Few weeks back my advertising guy came by and I asked him about getting some of the Tempil posters printed up.. He said to contact the office and speak to the guy in charge.. I called and asked about a limited run of posters and to get the laminated.. He said first thing is what size.. I said what ever the proper format would be for the PDF but larger.. 11X17 or what have you.. He then said.. Ok. lets get a sample to you and we can go from there.. I said but really I at the present time …

Is there a proportion of oil to steel as to how much oil to use when quenching? I just want to make sure I will be using enough, since I've never made knives on my own before. If I don't use enough, will the oil get too hot and not harden the steel?

Hey all, i am attempting to harden my homemade anvil right now. I work in steel mill so i put it in the furnace about 30 minutes ago. I'm guessing it weighs about 100 lbs. and I think it's what we in the rebar buisiness call #60 grade steel. Once the temp is right I'll pull it out and throw it in the flume full of running water. My question is what is the right temp?

So if I buy a pid controller( part syl-2342 I saw Stacys sticky), and a ceramic hi temp thermocouple, what else do I need? I'm not exactly sure what powers it, or if it needs a heatsink. I know I need to drill a hole in my forge and place the probe out of the path of the flame, then line the hole with In my case mizzou. How deep does one want the probe? Any help would be fantastic. make sharp things

I am looking to make a new spring for a leg vice out of a automotive leaf spring. If I re shape it in the forge will i need any special cooling treatment to retain its springiness?

After the fire we have a shovel that either was work weakened or annealed and has a bend in it and just curves into the ground. I would like to try to hammer out the bend and retreat it. How should I go about doing that or should I be wasting my time? If it can't be done no big deal but this shovel has been through heck and back with my wife so we would like to resurrect it but if it becomes a "useless" wall hanger that's fine

I am new to blacksmithing and don't know what to use. What oil you guys use to quench for hardening, as well as what you use for quenching while forging, such as for cooling the tip of a nail before passing it through the header so it doesn't get stuck or flattened? Thanks so much Your multiple question post has been split into multiple posts and placed on the correct forums.

I'm sure this has been posted before but I haven't seen it so just thought I would share. I came across an online version of the Machinery's Handbook, specifically the portion about heat treating and it is an awesome resource! I don't think this goes against any IFI rules, if it does sorry in advance and admins feel free to remove. http://www.zianet.com/ebear/metal/heattreat0.html

This is probably a foolish question, but I've read in a few different places tonight that the main reason for adding nickel in steel is to promote an austenitic structure, but since we want a martinsitic structure....? Or does it not matter because we're forcing the martensitic structure on the piece, and the added toughness that we get from nickel is why it's put in? Sorry if it's a dumb question, I'm about 4 hours in tonight on reading what elements are added to steel and why, and how it effects (if at all) the HT. I'd like to make some hammers this spring and decided if I can't forge I'd get as much "book" knowledge as I can about different steels

What is the best method to harden my rail anvil

I'm wondering if anyone could give me a rundown on heat treating or whatever I need to know about a unknown leaf spring material. It's awfully thick but it forges down pretty good and I just cannot seem to get the heat treat right. I've been bringing up to critical temperature and quenching in canola oil with no results because it is still soft can anyone help me???

Hi all, Lately we've been making an awful lot of hammers; mostly from 1045. Forge, grind, polish, then heat treat. Heat treat consists of heating each face to non-magnetic or just above, and quenching in water-aggressively moving it to break through the steam jacket. Then re polish and temper using hot drifts-watch the colors run and quench again. My question is this-is tempering nessesary? I have read about Tom Clarke, IIRC he used 4140, heat treated (quenched in...oil? I'm assuming) and then did not temper. Maybe I read false information about that, but I've heard others mentions not tempering as well. Is this specifically talking about 4140? Or in general for hamm…

I need to replace my old quenching oil the stuff I have is about 14-15 years old and it is either degraded or not a fast enough oil for what I need it to do. Polymer quenchants have the advantage of less or no smoke, reduced fire dangers and the quench speed is adjustable by varying the mix ratio. The disadvantages I can think of are having to monitor the mix ratio regularly and the possibility of biological contamination. Anyone know of other problems? I will primarily be using the oil or polymer for quenching 20-50 pcs at a time every few weeks and then for use making shop tools probably once or twice a week. So it will be sitting around unused for days an…

I wanted to make a spring flatter for a class I'm in but I didn't have thick plates of high carbon steel to make the striking plates. I decided to take two pieces of mild plate steel that were 2"x2"x1/2" and weld four pieces of auto leaf spring pieces that were 2"x2"x1/4" on the top and bottom with a MIG welder,I welded all around the edges essentially making a steel sandwich with the leaf spring as bread and the mild as the meat. What would be the best method of heat treating so that all three of the different metals used in the construction can stay stuck together and survive the hammer blows?