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03-21-2002, 12:17 PM
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Heat treating with a charcoal forge.
Hardening.
This shows the pipe chamber in the forge. The pipe is hammered shut on the opposite end. I put some pieces of charcoal inside the pipe at the back to create a reducing atmoshpere. The pipe also makes for an more even heat, the blade is more visible, and it protects the blade during heating.
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03-21-2002, 12:25 PM
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Tempering.
This shows the tempering baffles, oven thermometer, the blade stand, and the blade inside. This is nice because I can control the temp,. with the blower and by adding wood if needed. I stone the blade off prior to tempering so I can watch for the color bands. The thermometer gives me a rough idea of how hot the inside is. I normally bring the thermometer up about 50 to 100 degrees hotter than I want, and watch for the color bands.
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03-21-2002, 12:28 PM
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Tempering.
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03-21-2002, 12:35 PM
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The temper color.
This shows the tempering color. Note the deep quench line. I use this on small medium carbon blades. A narrow quench, tends to leave the blade too easy to bend, with this type of steel, even if the edge is hard.
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03-21-2002, 09:17 PM
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I really like the very even heat you can get from doing it that way. also works killer for annealling .
Tai,
Should I be quenching my small blades that deep ?, I've been doing them like the bigger ones.
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03-21-2002, 09:26 PM
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It really depends on the type of steel, and what the blade is going to be used for. You don't need to go that deep with 5160, but for 1065, like this blade, or 1050, it's a good idea.
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03-22-2002, 02:44 PM
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Is that just regular schedule 40 steel plumbing pipe Tai? How long does a chunk last in the forge before you have to replace it? I'm going to try that. I've seen it before but never tried it yet. Now is the time! Thanks Tai. Great ideas. You're really outdoing yourself with all this helpful information.
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03-22-2002, 06:58 PM
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It's just a plain old piece of steel pipe. A thicker wall would be better, because it soaks the heat more evenly. I just had that one laying around. I've got thicker ones that I use on larger blades. As you all know, don't use galvanized pipe. It will give off harmful, if not fatal, vapors.
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03-22-2002, 10:10 PM
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Ooops. I forgot to mention, I've already done about 25 blades in that little pipe and it's still holding up. I have larger pipes that I've heat treated 75 or more blades in already. The key is never to get the pipe much over critical temp., and heat it slowly. With my charcoal forge, just the draft, with no blast from the blower, tends to soak out in the lower critical range. At least for the steels I work with. I don't use the blower much when I'm heat treating.
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03-23-2002, 01:24 PM
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yep thats how ive done it sence i watched the video . i use a piece of exhaust pipe and ive done about fifteen so far and it still looks new. i like it this way because its easy to check with the magnet. boo
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03-24-2002, 10:47 AM
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The only real difference between how I do it now, and how I did it in the video is ... in the video, I did the tempering in a Weber grill. The Weber works good, but requires another fire, and has less controll over the heat, than the baffle system I use now.
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