ok, i need help.

everytime i've tried to clay temper my blades, they cracked.:mad:

could someone please tell me something to solve my problem.

thank you,
Matt

What kind of steel are you using? Do you quench in water or oil?

also what temps and are you normalizing before the hardening? is it new or used steel?

if oil are you warming up your oil ?
how thin do you take your edge before HT?



cya
jimi

i am using 1065 1/4" flats, quenching in brine water (room temp), i am quenching at about 1800, and my edge is down to about 1/16".

For one your temp is far too high for 1065 if you're quenching at 1800f.

1065 should be normalized between 1550 and 1600, and hardened between 1475 and 1550. this should result in around a 62 RC hardness as quenched, which is about as hard as you're going to get 1065

if you keep haveing cracks forming i would switch to oil... it will cool down slower (relativeley) but less chance of stress crack .. also could be problems in forgeing .. if you overheat the steel in forgeing or heat it too long you can get grain growth ..also forgeing too cold can create problems sometimes ... good luck....

My personal leaning would be a water quench, at between 1400-1500 degrees F.

thank you everyone!

yeah, i was getting really tiered of my work going into the junk ben.

thanks,
Matt