Can anyone give me any information on EN45 steel? What would it be comparable to that I can look for guides on treatment? I'm assuming that it is just an awkward British naming of something that I have seen plenty of times in online articles/videos? 

SAE 1045 plus 0.25 silicon

 

EN45 – Silicon Manganese Spring Steel
Flat     Circular             
                 C.               Si.               Mn.              S.               P.
min.     0.50%     1.50%     0.70%                –               –
max.     0.60%     2.00%     1.00%     0.050%     0.050%

 

wow my chart must be off Mn and Si are way higher than I have llisted, thanks Dave even my carbon is low

dont know if it is right, was just one source I had handy

 

I've looked it up as equivalent to 1045.. tempering that is going to be a nightmare. I don't think chucking it in the oven is going to cover it... allllllthough my oven does have a pyrolytic cleaning function that takes it up to 500c for an hour and a half.... hmmm 

When you say "tempering" do you mean heat treating?  We usually restrict tempering to drawing the temper after a steel has been hardened and that is often done in a kitchen oven or toaster oven.  Now heating it up for hardening does require a forge, furnace or tourch.

I do mean tempering after the heat/quench. The temps for that type of steel seems to be around 500c.

500 C==930 degF??????????? what are you trying to accomplish?  Even a spring temper is around 500-600 deg F for most alloys.

I'd triple check that and make sure your source for it didn't get F & C confused.

500 F would be high

10 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

500 C==930 degF??????????? what are you trying to accomplish?  Even a spring temper is around 500-600 deg F for most alloys.

I'd triple check that and make sure your source for it didn't get F & C confused.

 

9 hours ago, Steve Sells said:

500 F would be high

I don't know if it is reliable but this was my source. http://www.steelforge.com/aisi-1045/ 

 

Tempering after normal hardening and oil or water quenching is carried out at 750-1260 ºF (400-680ºC) 

Other websites say similar things

http://www.interlloy.com.au/our-products/carbon-steels/1045-medium-tensile-carbon-steel-bar/ 

Stress Relieving

Heat to 550 oC - 660 oC hold until temperature is uniform throughout the section, soak for 1 hour per 25mm of section, and cool in still air.

Tempering

Re heat to 400 oC - 650 oC as required, hold until temperature is uniform throughout the section, soak for 1 hour per 25mm of section, and cool in still air.

Yes but what are they planning to do with it? (and what are you planning to do with it?)

The ASM Metals Handbook, 8th edition, Vol 2: "Heat Treating, Cleaning and Finishing", on page 54 shows that tempering at 585-615 degF results in a Rockwell C hardness between 42 and 48.  Good for some tooling but WAY LOW for a knife blade or axe. Tempering at higher temps results in still lower hardness. So what do you want to use it for tempering at those temperatures?  Tongs---great, cutting items NO!

It is generally intended as a spring steel, so most of the real-world applications will have a spring temper and the data sheets reflect this. For blades, it will usually need a lower tempering temperature to give higher hardness, though actual tempering temperatures for blade applications are fairly difficult to find. When used for blades, it tends to be used for swords, where the toughness is more important than the hardness. Maximum attainable hardness seems to be around HRC56.

At 870-930 degC, the Austenitizing temperature is higher than for most other Carbon steels by around 100 degC. It's not a problem, but is something to be aware of.

As far as I can tell, the AISI equivalent is 9255.

I think EN45 does not have a direct equivalent steel the closest I have found is 6150 (though not exactly the same).

 

Its not at all like 1045 which has a close UK match with EN8.

As Tim mentions above the austenising temp is 100C higher than most plain carbon steels. this also seems to make this material prone to a thicker than normal layer of decarb.

 I normalise and harden at 900C

I have used this material for big knives and swords with good results as well as crossbow prods, I have found a temper of 250C to give good results for swords , 430C for springs.