Heat Treating ATS-34 questions

[Wade Holloway]

What is the best way to do this? I really do not want to send the blade off to be heat treated, I think this is something I need to learn. Doing regular carbon steel is not much of a problem but as I understand it there are allot of other pitfalls when doing stainless. My goal is an RC of 59-60. Any help or guidance throught this process would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Robert Mayo]

Here is Admirals info.


http://www.admiralsteel.com/reference/sstltech.html

[Wade Holloway]

Thanks Robert. Does not seem to be to complicated.



Heat Treating Information

Initial Quench Temperature - 1850?F-1958?F max

Hold for 30 minutes

Quench in warm oil



Hardening & Tempering Information

572?F - 1 hour - R/C 56-57

932?F - 1 hour - R/C 58-59

So with the initial quench I still need to wrap it with foil and then remove the foil for the quench in warm oil. Is this correct? Thanks.

[mete]

There are 4 steels that are basically the same chemistry. ATS-34, 154CM ,RWL-34 ,CPM154. The last two are particle or powder metal types with finer more uniform distribution of carbides. More expensive but better for the maker and user.... While Admiral suggests oil quench they can be air quenched .Better yet is to "plate quench " in the foil. Search that for lots of posts. It can also be cryo'd for 1 or 2 additional points HRc....Some makers use a low temperature temper , 400-500 F and some the higher 900 F. Experiment and pick which is better for you. For those complex steels tempering should be 2 hours + 2 hours minimum.

[Wade Holloway]

Thanks Mete. That give me allot more info.

[AcridSaint]

Hi Wade, I highly recomend air or plate quenching. Do you have an oven or kiln to heat treat with?

[Wade Holloway]

I am almost finished with a forge that I am building. I was planning to put a thermocoupler on and see if I can control the heat well enough to use it as an oven too. Not sure if it will work out but I thought it was worth a try.

[AcridSaint]

You'll have some trouble with the forge I think, you've got to stay relatively precise. You might be better off getting together with another maker locally to see if they can help out with heat treating the stainless.

[Wade Holloway]

You are probaly right, but I just thought I would try it and see if I could maintain and type of temp control. I do have a back up plan just in case. On the flip side my wife could see how much trouble I have and feel sorry for me and suggest I get an oven.

[AcridSaint]

Now that could be a good plan

[C L Wilkins]

Originally Posted by Wade Holloway

I am almost finished with a forge that I am building. I was planning to put a thermocoupler on and see if I can control the heat well enough to use it as an oven too. Not sure if it will work out but I thought it was worth a try.

It is not "that" difficult to do with a forge. Place a piece of 2-inch pipe inside the forge so you can put your blade inside of it. I have a forced draft blower on mine and to do this, a gate or ball valve to control the air flow is definitely required. You will not be able to properly regulate the air flow by a piece of cardboard over the fan intake. I have never tried to heat treat anything with a venturi burner setup so with that setup I can't answer.

Just make sure that the temperature inside the piece of pipe is well stabilized before attempting to put the blade inside.

It can be done but a heat treat oven is the best solution. For tempering, the forge is just not workable. You can use the kitchen oven for that but be sure to have it stablized to temperature as well and use a thermometer to verify that it is actually at the right temperature. Don't trust the setting on the oven. It can be way off.

Craig