heat treatment

navajasound · #1

Just curious what temperature will spoil the heat treatment of a blade ? For example S30v steel or any cold working steel . Tell me what do you think or know on that question . :)

Frapiscide · #2

More than boiling water. I'd say that 250 F starts pushing the envelope. I'm not sure about work hardening steels like H1, though.

Piet.S · #3

Hardness will be effected when you reach tempering temperatures.
Roughly 200 degrees Celcius, about 390 Fahrenheit.

I_like_sharp_things · #4

Frapiscide wrote:More than boiling water. I'd say that 250 F starts pushing the envelope. I'm not sure about work hardening steels like H1, though.

H1 isn't hardened through heat treatment. It's compressed so I'm not sure if heat has any effect on it.
The temperature to mess up the heat treat is higher than 212 otherwise people would have bad blades after dyeing their knives.

Spider bite · #5

I_like_sharp_things wrote:H1 isn't hardened through heat treatment. It's compressed so I'm not sure if heat has any effect on it.
The temperature to mess up the heat treat is higher than 212 otherwise people would have bad blades after dyeing their knives.

I take my scales off when I dye

navajasound · #6

I_like_sharp_things wrote:H1 isn't hardened through heat treatment. It's compressed so I'm not sure if heat has any effect on it.
The temperature to mess up the heat treat is higher than 212 otherwise people would have bad blades after dyeing their knives.

What do you mean with that (dyeing ) . Is it painting ? that is a new word for me and I cannot translate it .

dbcad · #7

When your blade starts turning orange your edge holding will be toast :eek:

Don't think a hair dryer would do it though :)

The Deacon · #8

navajasound wrote:What do you mean with that (dyeing ) . Is it painting ? that is a new word for me and I cannot translate it .

Something like painting. It's what you do to color cloth and Easter eggs, among other things. Often done by dipping the thing being dyed into a container of boiling liquid containing the dye. Folks have found it works on light colored FRN and G-10 handles.

As for the temperature needed to ruin heat treat, the starting point for that would be where Piet.S said, around 200º Celcius or 390º Fahrenheit. So it would take an open flame, extreme friction as during grinding or buffing, or some other source of high heat like an oven, to ruin temper.

Frapiscide · #9

I'm no metallurgist, but does that mean that H1 isn't affected (as much) by high heat?

Blerv · #10

Frapiscide wrote:I'm no metallurgist, but does that mean that H1 isn't affected (as much) by high heat?

I would agree. Exposing most things to extreme heat or cold will change the way it performs on a molecular level.

Simple solution is avoiding turning up the thermostat to 390 degrees. Will keep the energy bill lower too.

dbcad · #11

Blerv wrote:Simple solution is avoiding turning up the thermostat to 390 degrees. Will keep the energy bill lower too.

Good advice :D

If you let the materials get to tempering temperatures, their molecular structures will change and will affect their properties. I do like Blerv's solution best though :) Best not to stick your hardened blade in a hot oven for a long period of time.

Ankerson · #12

Right around 400 Degrees F could have an effect on the tempering.