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Quenching farrier rasps

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Hello, so could someone help me get on the right path to properly quenching farrier rasps? I have lots of rasps from shoeing horses and if I forge a blade I can't consistently get it hard. What should I quench in at what temp?

Thank you

  • Author

Thanks

I just didn't look long enough

To reiterate: heat treat is based on the alloy used which can/may/will differ between different manufacturers and can differ over time with the same manufacturer. (You can probably work out a HT method for a manufacturer and use it for their products and it will work until it doesn't!)

Scrapyard Rules: Test! Test! Test!  So sort your rasps by manufacturer and type (and hopefully by age).  Select one from a group and do the basic heat treating test: starting with a warm vegetable oil quench and going to brine if that doesn't harden enough. Break the hardened piece---wear PPE! and examine the grain structure to see if you are overheating before quenching. Try various tempering temperatures and see what works best for what YOU want. 

RECORD YOUR FINDINGS!  Something like:  Get-em-limping rasps: recent,  heat to just over nonmagnetic, quench in warm fry oil, temper to 325 degF for blades not being stressed, 425 degF for hawks and chopping blades.       El Cheapo rasps: recent, case hardened, use for snakes or other decorate uses, DO NOT USE FOR BLADES!     If you put it on a 3x5 card you can mount it on the wall of the smithy for next time.

First, no matter your steel, if you can't get it consistently hard, you do not have a consistent temp along your blade.

That's the first thing you must be able to achieve.

Then what Thomas said.

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