All Things Heat Treating

BossDog

KnifeDogs.com & USAknifemaker.com Owner
Staff member
Use this area for everything around heat treating.
Post any heat treat recipes, data, experiences, etc., about heat treating and related items or processes.

A mediocre steel that is heat treated exceptionally well will outperform a poorly heat treated steel. The more everyone knows about the process, the better.
 
Anyone use "Turco" anti scale.

I have used it with poor results. Keeps the scale off but pits the blade badly, defeats the purpose.

I may be doing something wrong?
 
Sorry, but no I havn't used it. What type of steel did it pit ?
I do recall a ways back hearing about the very same problem. I don't recall a solution besides not using it. But thanks for reminding me, I forgot to put the anti scale powder on my last order from Tracy.
 
Hello,
I have used turco for many years, I only use it on high carbon steels and Damascus with minor pitting on surface. A thin coat on a clean blade should work. This product works best on steels that heat treat around 1500-1550 degrees F. I have tried it on Ats-34 and other high temp stainless with no luck. Hope this helps !
Clint Sampson
Sampson Knifeworks
 
Thanks Clint,
I take 1084 to 1500 degrees.
Turco says to coat item with no more than 2 mil thickness, I'm not sure how thick that is or how to measure but have dipped my blades as it came in the can, kind of like polyurethane, and I've thinned it down to a very thin water like coat.

It was better, less pitting, with the thin coat, but still much deeper than any scale I get without.
 
Hi Mark,
Not sure what your finish is before heat treat? I go to a 120 grit or 220 grit before dipping in turco and return to same grit after heat treat. This removes those light pits pretty easy. I could see if you finished your blades to a finer grit it would be hard to get pass the pitting. I also dip my blades into the turco, but I have not tried to thin it. My gallon of turco must be over ten years old and still works! There is a lot of variables with all this so I hope my info can help a few!
Clint Sampson
Sampson Knifeworks
 
I have used Brownells' ATP with pretty good success on 01 and A2. Its range is 1000° to 2300°. It is not perfect, but the best I have tried.
 
I do take my grind a little to close to final finish, doesn't leave much room for flaw removal. I need to leave a little more meat for finish grind.

I just did one w/o the turco and I'm running out of blade to get it cleaned up, I'm pretty new to this so have a lot to learn.

Thanks for your help Clint, I think I'll change my grind and try it again.

LRB. thanks for the link, I may try it also.
 
I have just moved several threads from various parts of the board to this forum. I really was surprised to see how many threads we had accumulated on the subject and I did only 2 simple searches. I'm sure I missed finding/moving dozens of threads. I have to tell you, I learned quite a bit this afternoon browsing some of these threads when I was moving them. I then jumped over to Amazon and ordered 3 books for additional research/reference tools...
 
Hi Mark,
Glad I could help in some way! I like to leave 25-30 thousands on edge before heat treat, I found it's much easier to work your blade down and even up the shoulders on hardened steel,
More control, that's for hollow grinding anyway. I have used the brownells atp coating in hopes it would work for the high temp stainless, since I like to oil quench my ats-34. I could not get this stuff to stick well to the surface, and when I did get a fairly even coat I still had a lot of scale after heat treat. The heat range is right for this, but maybe it is not right for stainless? For my ATS-34 I went back to a foil pouch with 2-3 blades inside, when ready for quench I removed pouch from furnace, snipped the end and let drop into oil. But this is getting off the main subject! Thanks for hearing my experiences,
Clint Sampson
Sampson Knifeworks
 
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