AEB – L dry ice question

jmforge

jmforge

Well-Known Member
I am getting ready to do my first heat treatment of AEB – L at home. The commercial heaters have either become too expensive, not confidence or inspiring or they just flat don’t take small orders anymore. I have my 16“ x 4“ x 1“ plates and a long drive for dry ice. I have heard that AEB – L is finicky and you need to keep it clamped all the way through the process. As such, should I leave it in the plates and put that in the dry ice slurry for an hour or so? I’ve also heard that you should leave it clamped will be a little interesting. Trying to get a clamp set of plates into my oven. My question is should you take take the blades out of the foil packets and re-clamp them between the plates before you stick them in the dry ice or should you just go straight in foil and all to avoid any delays?
 
Right or wrong this is how I do my AEB-L. I/8” and thinner I grind post heat treat. I wrap in foil, heat treat and then put the wrapped blade between two aluminum plates. I put a 35 lb dumb bell on top of the plate. I use either my leaf blower or air compressor to blow air through the plates. After cooled I put blades in the freezer at -5 degrees for an hour. Then after reaching room temp I temper the blades in my oven.
 
I'm sure you'll get some different recipes? Mine is as follows, I cut a bunch of blanks (6-10) at a time to maximize my dry-ice. Heat treat them all in my oven (after H/T i have all the blanks that i can grind if someone wants a fillet or paring knife), then put as many blades as I can on my aluminum plates (I screwed my plates to a woodworkers vice, I set the vice up horizontally) use compressed air to cool as quick as possible, open foil once there cool to touch, put them in a cooler with dry ice and RV Antifreeze. I let this sit overnight.next day I temper them all and strain out the RV Antifreeze to reuse. Liquid Nitrogen is better but it's more money than Dry-Ice and more difficult to get for me. If your on Facebook I've had some success getting free Dry-Ice hitting up my friends that may have recently purchased online frozen meat from someone like Omaha Steaks. This has also saved me the 2 hour round trip to get the dry ice too!
 
I've had lots of problems with AEBL twisting and warping

This is what I do and it helpes a lot

I plate quench with plates in a vice and blast with compressed air

After a few minutes I take it out of the plates and out of the foil. Then I clamp it to a piece of angle iron. It's still quite warm while I'm doing this

I leave it clamped to the angle iron all the way through dry ice and temper cycles
 
Motor City Mike said:
I've had lots of problems with AEBL twisting and warping

This is what I do and it helpes a lot

I plate quench with plates in a vice and blast with compressed air

After a few minutes I take it out of the plates and out of the foil. Then I clamp it to a piece of angle iron. It's still quite warm while I'm doing this

I leave it clamped to the angle iron all the way through dry ice and temper cycles
Click to expand...
I will be clamping my plates during the quench by putting them between the two super wide dies on my hydraulic press. I’m planning to clamp the ends with little C clamps so I can use them in the dry ice and the temper if I have to. Angle iron would be better for the Freeze and the temper but I gotta find some. There’s like nothing reasonable to me. I have to drive 60 miles to get dry ice.
 
Depending on the thickness you for sure can experience warping. I took a class with Jordan Lamothe and he told the class if your gonna make thin knives your gonna have to deal with warping. That in mind I deal with warping when it happens.
 
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