Chris Covington Posted July 7, 2013 Share Posted July 7, 2013 Forged a flatter from 4140 this weekend. After hardening in peanut oil what temp should I temper it? I'm planning on oven tempering. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JNewman Posted July 7, 2013 Share Posted July 7, 2013 450 would be a bare minimum. I would temper the struck end to a blue. Or I would probably use the same method I use for power hammer tooling thanks to Forgemaster. I temper ithings hot enough that the oil flashes off. Better that you have to dress the tool a little more often than have it crack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Hale Posted July 7, 2013 Share Posted July 7, 2013 Looking at the steel data charts for that steel, 400f for two hours will give a hardness,,,depending on steel thickness, of 55 RC, to me that is harder than I want for a flatter, I would expect some chipping on the edges if used with a striker younger than me. The chart also show the temps needed for lower RC scale hardness, Those temps would not be attaineable in a home style oven. First off I woiuld test with a file and see if it skates, if not i would reharden. I would heat to a certain color on polished clean parts of the piece to get the tool correct. I want it softer on struck end to prevent chipping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Gaddis Posted July 8, 2013 Share Posted July 8, 2013 Chris you did a good job on your flatter. But you should have stayed around for the finalle'. For those reading Chris was with us (Lyle Wynn, Stan Bryant, David Gaddis) where we forged 5 flatters by hand Saturday. We ground flatters and hardened them yesterday, tempering to dark straw/ gold. As per Ed Brazeal's instrructions goldish should be just right! But then again we used Ed's flatter making anvil and only part of his instructions. BTW...making a flatter is not for the weak person. It take a lot of heat, lot of beatin', and a lot of sweatin', and then you must be serious. No kidding folks. This is not a regular back yard DIY project. Carry on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forgemaster Posted July 9, 2013 Share Posted July 9, 2013 We never HT flatters just leave them as normalised, they don't need to be hard, they are not a cutting tool, and I certainly would'nt harden the struck end, in fact I would try to anneal it, (by getting the struck end to dull red and burying it in a little pile of dirt on the floor and leaving it there for a few hours to cool slowly). Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trinculo Posted July 9, 2013 Share Posted July 9, 2013 Would love to see some pictures of the process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Covington Posted July 9, 2013 Author Share Posted July 9, 2013 i ended up heat treating my flatter. I positioned the flatter in my gas forge so that the face of the flatter was facing the burner and the striking end was actually sticking outside of the forge. I was able to get the face non magnetic without getting the rest of the flatter even to a cherry color. After confirming that the face was non magnetic i quenched the face in peanut oil. After letting it quench for about 10 sec or so i removed it and ran a file across the face to test hardness as well as knock the scale off so I could see the temper colors run. The residual heat was such that the colors ran pretty quick and I was able to get the face a nice brown temper color before quenching the whole thing in oil. The end result was a flatter with the face still retaining some extra hardness but the struck end was still soft. I am happy with the result. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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