Heat Treating: What, How, and Why?
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- Опубликовано: 4 фев 2025
- I know this is a long video, but heat treating is an important and complex process! this only scratches the surface of what is the most difficult and often most misunderstood part of bladesmithing.
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Finally a reason for the “temper three times” advice. I’ve wondered where that came from for years.
Outstanding video. Only just got to watch it, so glad I did. Bookmarked as authoritative for later reference when I need to settle questions down the road.
Glad I could provide some information! I'll hopefully be doing some breakdowns of the individual steps in the next few videos
Ill be watching that again. Really impressive and extremely educational! Great work and keep crushing it!!
SUPER helpful and well done! thank you Sir!
Awesome job sam I learned alot and you went into alot of detail. Two thumbs up!!!!
Thanks mate, I'm glad it served the purpose!
You touched on things I've never heard before. You used good analogies too!
Thanks Rob, glad it helped!
Very good video. Saw a lot of good hints. Alec Steel also explained a bit, a way long time back as he was together with Sam Fowler, I remember he also stated 3 cycles. But this video was really good. Watched it on the farm during "The Filing" ^^
I enjoyed watching it. Was very informative.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Would love to see a more advanced class
Great info that I needed here!
Thanks mate just starting out and very informative and helpfull .thankyou
Glad it's helpful!
Bloody good, you hit a lot of points many gloss over or take for a given.
Thanks mate, that was the aim!
I know that I appreciate videos like this when it comes to me making my blades I like to do it right as I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to the blade work still have a lot to learn when it comes to doing handles. Maybe you could do a video on how to set a handle and pins. As I can do hidden tangs all day long and not have an issue
That's a cool idea, thanks mate!
Another informative video thanks bloke
You're welcome mate!
This is some great content. I haven't delved into your deep dives yet, but I'm looking forward to it.
I have one question/confusion. You mention at around 12:45 or so that W2 has a high Mn content. What are you defining as high in this context? I want to experiment making both homogeneous blades as well as forge welded blades (San Mai and similar style) with a differential heat treat, one of the goals, in addition to soft spine and hard edge is a hamon. So, I'm using the clay coat technique. One of the bits of advice I've gotten from Walter Sorrells is look for steel with a relatively low Mn content and he suggested W2 (the Japanese Hitachi stuff looks fabulous, but is insanely hard to get and expensive in the US). The supplier I looked at for some W2 stock, lists the Mn content at .215. Their 1084 by contrast is at Mn = .803. Is this perhaps a difference between regional formulas, a difference in your definition of high Mn content levels? Something else? I'm just about to order a bit and want to understand as reasonably well as I can before spending money.
Cheers,
Steve at Dark Star Forge.
Thanks Stephen! I suppose to clarify "high" wouldbe "above nothing" haha. And in the case of W2 it's one of the more significant alloying materials, being such a relatively low alloy steel, manganese and silicon are high alloying content in rlation to the other alloys. I suppose labelling it as "high Mn" is a bit of a misspeak, instead itshould be "high relative Mn". W2 is absolutely amazing for hamons, and Walter definitely knows his business! 1084 itself can take a hamon, along with many of the 10XX steels, to varying degrees. Thanks gor checking it out!
@@SamTownsBladesmith Thanks! I actually had no real success with the 1084 that I have, and Walter suggested that the high Mn content in it (relatively speaking) may have been the cause and that's where the W2 suggestion came from. Regardless, I understand. It's often hard to convey all the nuance around these topics in a video like this, given that the answer to any given question can often be boiled down to "it depends". Thanks much for the clarification.
How long are you holding the piece at 820°c before quenching? Reason for my question is to do with hardening, I used to make valve face pieces for underground mining sludge pumps, 4140 , we would hold them at temp ( controlled and monitored with thermal reading) for 20min then quench in brine (tap water and as much pool salt as could be suspended in it )
How long for a 1/4" file blank couple minutes or so ay? We're just aiming to reach temperature uniformly thru the piece ay?
we didn't temper them
Yeah 4140 is an entirely different alloy and requires time at temperature for the chromium uptake. File steel (in this case W2) should be quenched once it reaches uniform temperature. Unlike with 4140 I would Highly reccommend tempering for high carbon steels haha
Roger, thanks for clarification on that.
Good Sam, I don't heat treat like that, I don't know what you call it, but I will quench my chisel of punch in the oil, then leave the top still hot, and then rub the cutting end or work end with some grinding disk or brick, and watch the colors run then quench and the whole lot.
That's called a differential harden and I actually covered it in the video haha
@@SamTownsBladesmith Oh Sorry Sam, missed it, Yeah differential harden. Thank matey.
I use o1, and we just got our propane forge so we arent used to it yet. these last to blades I quenched were stout and 3/16 thick at the spine. it was evening but still lots of light and our forge is outside. the blades were pretty orange when I dipped them. im sure they were over heated. is this a major problem? the edges were hard to the file and they tempered to a dark straw. I need to get a thermometer or get the forge into a darker place! the forgecast and your youtube has been a major asset for me. were @sonsofthundermetalworks on IG. just stock removal for now.
Glad I've been a help! A blade will still harden if overheated, but will develop large grain structure which will be brittle even when tempered. It takes a lot of trial and error without a thermocouple or laser thermometer. Keep at it!
Wow, you domt find many blacksmiths with such metallurgical knowledge. If you were back a few hundred years ago, you'd have arcane knowlege.
Ya get a bit off track with explaining things too deep, keep it simple mate. Leaves are green from the molecule chlorophyll too.