home heat treat S30V?

[Will]

I recently got a few scrap pieces of S30V, to see how much better than my primary stainless ATS-34 is.

I don't do many stainless at all, but a few people around here like it, and I get a wild hair every once in a while to do a little stock removal.

I plan on making a couple of test blades, one to send out and be heat treated and cryo'ed, and one to heat treat myself and see how they compare.

Ed, I know you've played with S30V, can you give me an in shop heat treat methoud?

I have a torch, a gas forge(no pyrometer), and use a modified toster oven to temper. I have Texico Type A quench, amoung other oils. Oh yes, a larg speaker magnet to check temp with.

Any idea if this would work or would I be better off to send the 5 or 6 stainless blades I do a year off?

Thanks, Will

[Ed Caffrey]

I heat treat S30 in my shop, but have found that oil quenching is not the way to go....at least for me. To "nail" the heat treat, I would suggest a pyrometer, and heat treat wrap. I seal the blades up in heat treat foil and heat them in the forge for the recommended soak time/temp. I them take the blade out and set it between two 1" thick X 12"X12" aluminum plates. Temper immediately. I have fooled around, and have found that 500F-550F gives me the best results opposed to the recommended 650F.
A note about the heat treat foil.....if you choose not to use it on S30, the steel will be full of pits when it comes out of the forge......almost honeycombed......it's a real ugly situation, and the blade(s) is pretty much ruined. I threw out the first couple of blades because of this, but once I went with the heat treat foil the problem was solved.

[Gary Mulkey]

Ed,

It took me by surprise when I saw that you were able to H/T the S30V in the forge. I would like to hear what kind of success you got. Two questions come to mind: How long did you soak at critical and how were you able to maintain critical temp without overheating the steel? I know by experience that S30V is critical on the quench but I have never played around with soak times & temps and would be interested in your results.

Thanks,

Gary

[Ed Caffrey]

Gary,

Soak temp I used was 1900F for 15 mins.......... with a digital pyrometer, and a little experimenting before hand, I can "dial" the forge into just about any temp between 1000F and 2500F I want. It was a real mess before I went with the heat treat foil........but after that the blades came out great. I go from the forge (with the blades still in the foil), and place them between the quench plates. Once cooled to handling temp, I cut them out of the foil and into the oven at 450-550F (depending on what I want the final product to be). With this treatment the steel comes out at 59-60Rc Out of all the stainless stuff I've tried over the years, S30V is about the only one that I would consider using. It takes a great deal more stress to break an S30 blade, but it will still break, instead of bend. (which is the big down side from my point of view). If they keep after it, one of these days their going to come up with something that will top 52100.........but it ain't here yet.

[Will]

Thanks Ed, looks like I'll be sending them out for heat treat. I was hoping to be able to do it with my compact set-up, but I don't do many stainless anyway.

I too prefere 52100, and while my blades arn't break prof yet(still working on that part), they are tougher than any stainless I've experimented with, hold an edge about three times as long as ATS-34 and are one heck of a lot eisier to sharpen. Rust is not an issue with me, I even caried a 52100 folder off shore to test it out on the rig, rope, chemical sacks and steel banding was it's main diet till it went for a swim. Going to have to find time to make anouther.

Thanks again Ed,

[nht]

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take care,
pat

patm@nevadaheattreating.com
www.nevadaheattreating.com