RE Heattreating 5160

Leatherface

Well-Known Member
Hey guys

Just like the title says

I have a large 5160 bowie that I did the heat treat on a couple years ago...Its all kinds of tuff, but doesnt hold an edge that well at all and I am thinking that I got it WAY to hot

SOOO I was thinking of redoing the HT since I have alot better grasp of my temps now

So what would be the best way of redoing it??

thinking of

3 critical quenches

3 normalizing cycles

1 dull red anneal

then

HT as normal
bring temp up slowly to non mag and quench in Zebra urine heated to 150 degrees

How does that look?
 
Who in the world told you zebra urine? That's ridiculous. Anybody knows it should be from a wildebeast..
 
To reduce grain size in this case I would do the following, lowering the temp of each soak if possible :

Normalize
Quench
Normalize
Normalize
Quench
Temper to desired hardness


Seth
 
I think you could do three normalizing cycles starting at critical temp then reducing temp then an anneal. Then quench in the urine just remember it must be from a male ....steve
 
If you anneal, why would you normalize first? The main concern of normalizing is to reduce the grain size, and stress. How do you define "critical"? 5160 needs a soak at quench temp, minimum 1475°, to 1525°, of about 10 minutes, give or take a couple.
 
Thanks guys for the help

what I am worried about is simply getting the grain back down to a reasonable level

When I did th HT on this one, I went solely by color

Now I know better

anywho

Of course i know about using the male urine over the female..

LRB

Soaking is pretty much out for me unless I send it out and that isnt happening till I get a few more blades to cut down on the cost

critical is the point where my trusty magnet wont stick to it
 
You cannot go by the magnet. Steel loses magnetism at 1414°. That could be your problem to begin with. Use the magnet to get your base, then raise your heat by about two shades of color. Hold a little bit if possible, then quench. Before that however, to normalize and reduce the grain size, raise the heat to about three shades of red over non-magnetic, then air cool to ambient. Then repeat but at non-magnetic, and again at just shy of non-magnetic. Then proceed to the quench heat, and quench it. Going above the quench heat will increase grain size, but make it all about uniform. The following heats will reduce it's size. You could do the last step twice if you want to be sure.
 
Watch the color just after it goes non-magnetic. If the inside of your forge (assuming you have a closed forge) is not too hot/bright you will see a shadow in the interior of the thicker parts of the blade. When this shadow disappears you are at critical, but because your forge is probably running a bit hotter than this, the edge and other thin areas have probably gone somewhat beyond critical by this point, so you have to use color to judge how even the heat is.
 
I get the shadows dancing thing...kinda freaky really

I will work on getting some soak done

Grrr I really need an oven!!

anywho

3 reducing heats from over non mag...k gotcha

prolly throw in an anneal as well just for giggles

thanks guys
D
 
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