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Old 01-25-2016, 03:37 PM
David Eye David Eye is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: North Central WI, USA
Posts: 74
Thanks Stuart....appreciated.
What I'm not sure of is how long it will take the blade to actually be completely saturated to 1475F when I put it into a preheated oven. You say only a couple minutes....are you absolutely sure? How are you determining that.....by color when you take it out? You say preheated oven is "what is taught", maybe for less chance of grain growth, but where did you get the info? Kevin Cashen stated that there really should be no concern regarding 1095 grain growth as long as the temps are kept below 1525F. I know grain growth can be a problem with other steels and I'm not debating that, but I'm trying to keep this about 1095.

Yes,I am concerned about scale and decarb especially due to a longer time in the kiln, thus the reason I want to use an anti-scale compound. If I have to purchase ATP-641 I will, I was just hoping for something a little less expensive and maybe a home brew of some kind.

If the blade heats up as quickly as you say when put into a completely hot (1475F) kiln, then as I mentioned before, I was thinking of a slight compromise to be SURE the blade is @1475F BEFORE my soak. Mt compromise would be to put the blade in at maybe 900-1200F instead.

One thing I hate is "MAYBE'S" when it comes to something I would like to be more exacting on.
I did look at the Paragon and Evenheat instruction manuals for their Knife blade kilns and they state to put the blade in a cold kiln, although they might not be completely learned on all aspects of Heat Treating various steels, such as 1095 versus stainless, grain growth possibilities between steel types, etc, etc.

I personally don't believe I am "overthinking" anything regarding wanting to be sure the blade is saturated to 1475F before the soak. I believe it is VERY important to be SURE the blade is up to temp before the soak. What "bugs me" is NOT KNOWING FOR SURE the amount of time it may actually take for the blade to get to 1475F with your method. Therefore I would rather play it safe and allow it MORE than just maybe 2 minutes to get up to temp and then soak.

What seems to be lost here is my NEED to be more exacting with my HT method. As I said earlier, that is my nature and with Heat Treatment of my blades I for sure will be as exacting as possible. One of the reasons I am building an elect. kiln is so that I can control the temp and time as precisely as possible. After all, HT really is all about temp and time for each given steel and it's properties.
I was hoping to gather some more definitive answers to just a few questions I had, but I'm beginning to see that that may not be very possible with so many people having their own techniques.
I'd rather stick to the known science and properties of 1095 regarding HT but at the same time introduce peoples own techniques based on experience with 1095. Yes, I'm a complete newbie at HT knife blades, but I'm not new at reasoning things out and making my own choices, at least to start out with, therefore:

1) I think I'd like to believe K.Cashen's statements about 1095 grain growth.
2) I want to be absolutely sure my blade is up to temp before the soak.
3) I was always planning on using an anti-scale compound of some kind anyway.
4) 1475F is not being disputed by anyone.
5) Soak time of approx. 5-10 minutes is not terribly disagreeable, although some people only soak a couple minutes.
6) Canola oil is NOT optimum quench medium but doable by many.
7) Temper temperature and RC value remains to be seen and I will start at 400F.

I really do appreciate any and all help from everyone, but I may not always agree with everyone's techniques due to my more exacting/precise nature.
Once I start heat treating blades I will be learning what works best for me to achieve properly treated 1095 blades. To borrow a cliche'....."the proof is in the pudding" (blade)!

Thanks to all again and I still welcome any and all help regarding HT of 1095.
DAVID
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