Has anyone ever heat treated 1045?

Thunter124

Well-Known Member
1045 heat treating

Local steel supply company has 1045 in 2" round stock that I could use for forging some tools(hammers, hardy tools, hot cutting tools). most of the time when people start listing out the simple carbon steels they end em on the low end around 1050, so does 1045 have enough carbon to harden into a workable cutting edge?
 
Last edited:
Hunter, 1045 will harden in water, better yet SuperQuench. You could probably make hammers, sewages, fullers, etc. Probably not a good long lasting hot cut, but try it and let us know how well your hot cut worked. Many people say that it does no good to harden hot working tools. I feel that by hardening then tempering the tool you refine the grain structure of the steel and that even if the temper is drawn down from your tempering temp it is still harder than if in the normalized state. I have made tools out of 5160 and used them as forged and they mushroomed. I then reformed the tool and hardened and tempered it to 450 degrees and have had no further problems.

If you can get the 1045 at a really good price (salvage) it would probably be worth getting some. If it is the regular price you would be better off getting one of the more hardenable steels, 5160 (coil springs) would be better but are hard to get in larger diameters. I have a coil spring 7' long that the material is 1 3/4" diameter and the coils about 12". I make great hot cuts from this. You may be able to find some of this around a rail road yard.
 
Could you get a workable mechete or other chopper like an axe out of the 1045 with the super quench? I see anything being made out of it being very tough but not holding an edge very well at all, which could be useful for making a chopper you could sharpen with a file or simple stone in the field.
 
There was an excellent blade grinder, Bob Engnath, that had a line of Japanese style blades that he listed as being made from 1045/1050. He never made any super performance claims for the blades, but I believe to this day when one shows up, they are thought as being more than serviceable. I'm with Wayne above though, if you're paying 'retail' there are other steels you may prefer.

Good luck with it, Craig
 
Ill see about making some super quench when I go about hardening, are there any recommended temps for 1045 as far as the harden, or just plain non-magnetic? If I mess up the temper I suppose I could redo it, it'll help with my blacksmithing skills either way. I'll probably get something like 3/4" to make into tongs as well, Ill need to make some more specific ones.

Also, leatherface, I'm going to be doing more forging with larger stock, and this is not for making "nice" knives or anything. I'm just looking locally for a reliable source of large stock for making tools, and we have an ONEAL STEEL that has 1045 round ground and polished that I can use for making hardy tools and hammers, as well as practice on forging techniques. I know full well I could buy 1084 and have good edge retention and durability allong with already established guildlines as to hardening and tempering, but that would also require more precise instruments that are not in my possession at the moment. I don't even have a grinder at the moment, I will be doing mostly hand work, so anything that is harder will be allot more work on my part at the moment. These are all reasons why I created a thread SPECIFICALLY to ask about the use of 1045 which was locally available and looked to fit all my needs, this was not a thread asking what would be the best steel, merely a question about a specific steel.

-Hunter
 
so the base formula for Superquench is 5 gallons water, 5 pounds table salt, 32 oz dawn, 8 oz shaklee basic. I see everything here as being easy to find on the shelves at walmart but shaklee(I have yet to look at our local one) is there anything else that can substitute for the shaklee?
 
Back
Top