bbaley Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 Hi all, I am not sure if this is the best forum for the question but... I have an inexpensive Infrared thermometer supposedly capable of measuring up to 2400F, and has adjustable emissivity setting. I have been trying to find some general information regarding emissivity of forged (or heated soon to be forged anyway) steels that are in the range of 1400-1600 F - or generally critical temperature ranges for quenching , or even just getting better idea of what "colors" are what temperatures in my environment (lighting etc) to my eyes, etc. I have started looking through various documentation, and some papers, but having a hard time finding some general ranges to try or expect. The materials would be for me, pretty typical simple steels like 1084, O1, 1095, etc... I don't really have a way to "calibrate" - my only thought was I might get close (sorta?) with a known material if I could time when it loses magnetic properties/critical temp? then try various emissivity settings until they seem like a close match to expected temp ??? totally guessing, I am a novice when it comes to this stuff. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timgunn1962 Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 I had an IR thermometer, good to 1600 degC. Pretty close to useless for most smiths. It ended up with a guy who makes some nice kitchen knives. He uses it to check for consistent temperatures when taking billets from the forge as they come out. Once he’s got the first one or two working right, he doesn’t care what temperature value he is reading, just that the reading is the same each time. When the steel is in the forge, it scales to some extent. When it comes out into the air, it scales some more. When it gets hit, the scale gets knocked off and immediately starts reforming. The emissivity changes with every process and every second that passes. There is no one value that will give accurate temperature readings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 Welcome aboard.. I always suggest reading this to get the best out of the forum. READ THIS FIRST Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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