Considering HT of 440-C

[AlanR]

Hey all,
Due to time constraints and my procrastination....well I'll tell you more about that later.

I'm thinking of trying a heat treat of my 440-C blade. This is my third knife ever, and my first with stainless. I have access to an oven at work and I've seen some nice 2" thick pieces of aluminum laying around for quench plates. I've also read this thread

http://www.knifenetwork.com/forum/sh...ght=heat+treat

a couple of times to get an idea. So here are a few questions:

1: Should I normalize, and at what temp? Below critical and air cool or very slow cool?
2: Will the quench mess up the plates any? I doubt anyone will miss them but I hate to be wasteful of items at work.
3: Am I biting off more than I can chew?

Note: I would send it off to TKS but I've let the KITH date sneak up on me and I would like to have a heat treat done by Nov. 15th so I can confirm at that time whether I'll be ready. I've had this blade done for a few weeks, but was wanting to turn out a few more and get them all heat treated at once. The second two I just wasn't pleased with so I didn't continue on with them. I may possibly try a test HT on one of the scrapped blades if it is considered a good idea.

Thanks,
AlanR

[AcridSaint]

Hey Alan, I don't do stainless so most of my advice won't help you, but I'll go ahead and say that I've never hear of normalizing stainless, just soak times. I don't think you need to normalize because of the soak.

Also, where are you located? You might be able to run down a maker around here that's somewhat nearby and get them to help you out with it, especially since it's kind of a one-time deal. Might be safer than the DIY approach so soon and you'll get an opportunity to meet another maker.

Just my thoughts.

[Don Robinson]

It won't do any harm to normalize, especially if you've straightened the blade.

I advise you to go to Crucible Steel's web site and use the information there about heat treating 440C.

One thing, though. Use the lower temperature curve, not the secondary hardness temps. Temper at the lower temps also.

As for possibly damaging quench plates, just use two relatively heavy steel plates. 25 to 30 lbs. apiece. It won't damage them at all.

440 C needs to be treated in a controlled atmosphere furnace or use foil wrap to protect the blade. Accurate temperatures and soak times are very important.

Don't try this with a torch.

[Larrin]

Don't normalize.