M14 Forum

seagiant · October 9th, 2011, 07:56 PM

Hi,
52100 is the new darling of home forging knifemakers and can be heat treated with a simple oven. However it comes in round stock and even red hot is tougher than chicken lips and a power hammer is pretty much required! What was funny to me about this steel is its "discovery" here, but was used in the Philipines from bearing races by the butterfly knife makers for the past 80 yrs.! When you bought a butterfly knife in Batangus the maker would throw a quarter on the table and then stab the coin with the point of the knife and it would go through it and he would show it to you on the end of the blade!

SOCOM42 · October 9th, 2011, 08:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by charlieecho

i've never considered salt water. I'll have to try it. I learned to oil temp my blades from a metal smith years ago and have always used that process.

you can not use brine on o-1 it will shatter. Salt can be used for tempering. Wh type steels and low carb types that are cased can be quenched in brine solution.

There is a book, houghton on salt baths. It is somewhat dated, but gives you insight to molten salt tempering. Makes it quick and even and helps avoid decarb.

CharlieEcho · October 10th, 2011, 04:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SOCOM42

you can not use brine on o-1 it will shatter. Salt can be used for tempering. Wh type steels and low carb types that are cased can be quenched in brine solution.

There is a book, houghton on salt baths. It is somewhat dated, but gives you insight to molten salt tempering. Makes it quick and even and helps avoid decarb.

Thanks for the heads up. I have a cousin and a friend that both work in machine shops. I was going to ask them more about the salt/brine. They are my access to oil baths,

, tempering. I'm a tinker-er not a metal smith.