low temp salt bath

gearhartironwerks

Well-Known Member
Hello,
I'm new to the forum and am interested in low temp salt baths. I have a high temp salt bath, and would like to follow up with a low temp bath rather than oil. I have a gas burner and 4"x 18" stainless tube for a crucible and the Brownells salts. I've been reading that a temp of 400 is where the blades should be held. I'm working with 1095/L6 and O1/L6 pattern welded blades. I would like to solicit some help as to what temp to hold them and for how long. Most of the blades I make are chef oriented.
Thanks,
John Emmerling
Gearhart Ironwerks
 
First of all, there is no one temperature that you should hold your bath at. It will depend on the steel, or combinations of steels, and the use that you want to put them to. Also, with the mixes that you use it will depend on the actual carbon contents of component steels and the ratio that you mix them at that will determine the carbon content of the bar of damascus. If you are mixing some 1095 with some higher carbon L6 then you will need to temper a little higher, especially if the 1095 is also has a higher actual carbon content. So 400° would not be a bad place to start off with. You will need to test your blades against what you think that they should hold up to for their intended use and adjust from there, though 425° or even 450° might produce the best results with a higher carbon mix. But then again, if you have a lot of decarberation while welding everything up you could well need to go below 400° for the hardness and wear resistance that you want.

This is assuming that you're not trying to get fancy and use your low temperature salt bath for marquenching or austempering. With that one you are going to have to refer to the IT diagrams for those steels and make an educated guess as to where you think the Ms point might be and , with austempering, what the final hardness is you want to achieve. For the latter, access to a hardness tester would really make your life easier, though you could probably get by with performance testing.

Doug
 
John, your O-1/L6 will work fine with the salts, but your 1095/L6 will not reach full hardness in low temp salts, there will also be distortion issues.
 
Kevin, a question, as I keep tossing around the idea of high and low temperature molten salt baths. On the 1095/L6 mix, is it the rate of cooling with the salt bath that gets in the way? Also, it this with using it for marquenching or tempering the blade? Thanks for all the input.

Doug
 
Back
Top