Heat Treating, general discussion

Not sure if this is in the right place or not, so feel free to move if not. Anyway, I've got a 140# piece of saw cut fork, and was wondering if it is heat treated. I know that 4140 (or 4340?) is tough stuff, and at the thickness my piece is, it may well not have been heat treated. I just wanted to check before I went to a ton of trouble trying to heat treat that big a chunk of steel. Thanks, all!

So I have a few lengths of S7 I am planning on making some punches and other hot work tools out of. After a lot of online research, I have what I believe to be the proper way to do this, but I'd like a little more clarification of a few points. The steel I have is from Mcmaster, so is already annealed and in it's ready to work state. For shaped punches, like eyes and such, all I need to do is grind them to shape then heat treat, correct? The heat treating of S7 is where I have found so many different methods that I am a bit confused. To heat treat it, I take my new formed punch, heat it up to a nice red heat (I don't have an accurate thermocouple or thermometer for that h…

Those folks deep frying Turkey or other birds this season may want to save the oil to quench metal in later.

I have been using h13 to make some slitting chisels and punches. I know that I'm supposed to forge it at a yellow heat, but the past couple of times it has cracked and broken off right behind the yellow. I am only working with 1/2" round. Also, I was wondering if anyone has made center punches out of it. I would like to know how to make sure it doesn't break off while forging and all of that stuff. Thanks!

tire hammer dies : I am in process of building a tire hammer a la Clay spencer. I am wondering about the procedure for making the dies. The plans call for 4140 welded to mild steel plate. Heating to 1200 F ,soaking for 15 min rise to 1575 and soak for 10 min Then quenching in warm oil. Can I do this in my little nc propane just using heat colors to guestimate temp? or should I find a heat treating service which won't be less than an hours drive away,if they will do it.

Looking for anyone with any experience with these hardness testers. Cant find much if any info online. I picked up one its very old. Any input on setting it up and what not would be very helpful. I went thru the whole thing and cleaned it up (pics are previous to that) and everything operates smooth. I found instructions on how to do the actual hardness test which is simple enough. There are just some things on dialing it in that I am not finding anywhere. Thanks. Oh also if anyone had a manual for this particular one that would be super helpful. Patrice on another forum hooked me up with a manual but its a newer model, still helpful but not all the points are th…

as always there's tons of conflicting info out there. i'm making a square edge hardy tool mainly for tenons and lap joints from a piece of track. since there's really no way of knowing what the steel is for sure any thoughts on how to heat treat. after the time it's taking to forge a 4" section into what i need it would really suck if the thing cracks from being too brittle. any suggestions or a link would be great ...thanks

Just found this great article xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx which outlines the three key terms Heat Treat, Temper and Anneal. These terms are often used incorrectly and this can lead to some people not understanding what somone is talking about. Commercial link removed Perhaps they could read the pinned article that already covered this, rather than send people off site for wrong information? the blog referenced is incorrect. Please check facts before posting

got some A401 SiCr spring steel in a hardened state and would like to know about treating it EN47 is the nearest grade I have been told dont know yet what I will use it for, it is in various diameters from 8mm - 5/16" to 16mm - 5/8"

I'm attempting to use the Super Quench formula and it calls for the solution to be at 150°. I have a galvanized tub that I would like to use. I know I'm not supposed to forge galvanized things; but is there serious risk with heating it filled with liquid in an outdoor setting? Sorry if this has been asked before

I'm looking for the best steel for these motors I've been getting made: steelhubs.com they take a beating and I'd like to not have the shaft or housing deform which makes me think I'd want a high carbon steel, but they're electric motors and at least the outer housing will benefit from the lowest carbon content possible as it will have greater permeability and strengthen the magnetic field and make a stronger motor. From what I read there's not much that can be done to 1018 to harden it though. I'm assuming hardness is what I want most. Presently doing both parts in cold 1018 and soon to have some in 1144 but I think they will be weak motors. I'm not …

I've recently acquired an 80lb round stock of 4140 I would like to use as an anvil. It measures roughly 10 in round by 3 in in height. My main question as of now would be should I heat and quench and temper the 4140 whole or partial or not at all? And If it would be best then what type of quench would give the best results? Last minute thought... Any idea on a decent stand? I can acquire pretty much any material I need and am not too shabby a welder. Thanks for your time.

Hello, i am just getting into bladsmithing and have decided to make my own anvil out of a scavenged (25$) forklift tine. I am open to any suggestions on how to improve the design i have laid out in the pictures. I kind of want to put in a hardy tool hole but i don t really know how to go about it. Back to the main topic, should i heat treat in any way the top layer to make it more resilient to the pounding before i weld it all together. Thank you

A friend and I are working on forging some Viking style forging hammers using a wrought iron "core" with forge welded faces for both the large face and cross peen. I have an old, rusty 1 1/2" x 1/2" x 18" gage block that I plan to sacrifice to use for face material. I hot cut a section off last night and quenched it in water at a dull orange heat and it hardened up wonderfully, but if anyone has any idea what the typical steel type is for these I'd appreciate more accurate information so I can address proper heat treatment. Thanks

Any idea why steel bar Yield Strength difference is very high between the head and tail? The construction bars (ex: Y25mm) are rolled and cooled/quenched.

Can you forge a singe piece of steel too many times ?

Getting started here... don't even have a forge set up, but I bide my time between pay day and free day trying to understand basic principles. Of course the first family member I mentioned my interest to requested a spike knife(a little ahead of my desired first projects of nipper tongs, nails, and bracing for a work bench). Well, I'm a proponent of make it useful, make it right and then make it pretty, and I think I understand that it simply isn't tool/ good edge grade steel coming from a spike. So I'd like to find the best and most readily available method... Optimum results ya know. (I think I saw the best option on the site as... forging a spike out of the right steel…

I've been thinking about trying some S5 for cold cuts. Does this forge in the orange - yellow range? What color for the edge temper?

I reworked two horse shoe pritchels for a square hole ( nail header hole) and decided to try my hand at hardening/temper-draw. I cooled the very slow after forging to shape. I don't know what for steel Diamond brand pritchels are but quenched in used Auto trans oil filling a five gallon bucket. Heated them Just into non magnetic. I polished the taper end (about two inches worth )and heated the struck ends to orange. Pulled them from forge fire. No colors in ten minutes.Did it again. And again. And again. Nothing. I heated more of the punch (9 inches long) say four inches of it to orange heat. Nothing. Did it again. No temper oxide colors. Did it fou…

Greetings, in the past I have had great luck with all tool and steels with respect to heat treating. However, PMM4 has perplexed my abilities, and it could be the capability of my home shop environment. I am preheating in kiln to 1500f equalizing rapidly heating to 1900f (recommend by supplier for cold working tools) soaking at this temperature for 20 minutes (in propane forge) quenching in oil to approx 8-900 f (blacked) air cooling to 125f tempering at 1000f for two hours. I don't have a HRC tester but it's clearly not upwards of 60-65. I have contacted some services who have great prices for a run of my chisels but I would l…

my metals class is making some cromoly punches and need advice on heat treating

If I straighten bolts with forge, do I retemper and harden?

I hope I didn't put this in the wrong section, but while at work musing about heat treating, decarburization specifically, I wondered if coating the pieces to be heat treated with flux would help prevent decarburization. I did a search here, but didn't find anything specific to using flux as a decarb preventative. I don't imagine it would hurt anything, and would think it a thin enough layer to not affect the cooling curve of the quench, but I'm quite new at this... Has anyone used this "method" before? If so, what sort of results did you have?

Does anyone know of a place to buy a poster size temp chart for steel similar to the one on the back pages of the blacksmith premier? (I think it was the blacksmiths premier ) Thanks Russell

Having replaced all four struts on my wife's car, I now have the four old struts rusting out by the barn. What I'm considering doing is lighting off the huge brush pile I've accumulated over the winter (includes a couple of 60' pine trees) and tossing the four struts in the middle of it. By the time it all burns down (probably around 36 hours worth) I'm guessing the springs should be pretty well de-sprung. No, I have no plans to dash out and pull the retaining nuts off the top. I'll put a screw clamp on a couple of turns of spring and see if they stay compressed when released first. If they stay where the screw clamp left them, then I'll consider removing the top nuts. …