Anyone Heat Treating Hitachi Blue #2?

Diamond G Knives

Well-Known Member
Just got in some Hitachi Blue from Aldo. Just curious if anyone has heat treated this yet, and if so what were your experiences?
What quench medium did you use, and what tempering temps did you use to get what RC hardness?

Thanks and God Bless
Mike
 
Just got in some Hitachi Blue from Aldo. Just curious if anyone has heat treated this yet, and if so what were your experiences?
What quench medium did you use, and what tempering temps did you use to get what RC hardness?

Thanks and God Bless
Mike

http://www.paragoncode.com/temp/YSS_HCC_spec.pdf
http://www.mehr-als-werkzeug.de/medias/sys_master/124_01_M_WE_D_en.pdf
what i could find. doesnt sound like fun. good luck.
would be interesting to see how i compares to 1.2519, a german steel with almost identical chemistry except for more manganese. is very hard to find information on any of hitachi's steels, except that white and blue label are made from iron found only in the sand of a certain island and the sand is so rich in iron they collect it with magnets and ..............
 
Last edited:
I have yet to dig into my new stash of Aldo's blue steel, but have done some heat treating with the san mai stuff available thru workshopheaven and dictum. The Hitachi steels come perfectly spheroidized annealed....so there is no reason to do any normalizing or grain refining if all one is doing is stock removal. Murray Carter, whom we all know has worked with White and Blue steel for years and years, austenitizes Blue steel at 1490F for 10 minutes, but I do not know his quenching medium of choice. Hitachi uses water quenching on their test samples, assuming that means brine. A fast oil, such as Parks 50, might be needed to get the most out of the stuff, if you are a little apprehensive about the water (brine) quench. Murray's tempering temperature for blue steel is 392F (200C).

Mike, did you happen to get the Hitachi factory spec sheet with your shipment from Aldo? I received one, and on it Hitachi austenitized their sample at 1526F (830C), quenched in water (brine), and after one hour at 356F (180C), the resulting RC was 64.8. Most knifemakers who understand retained austenitite and max RC values will tell you that hypereutectoid steels should not be austenitized above 1500F. Too much carbon in solution does nothing to increase RC...and can actually decrease overall hardness due to RA.

Scott, I have a feeling that our beloved 1.2519 would perform identical to the Hitachi Blue steel!!!!
 
Last edited:
Try a series of coupons, with austentizing at 1470, 1480, 1490, 1500, 1510, and see which gets the highest Rc out of quench. That would be the number I use. Its simple to figure out tempering from there. I would suspect Rc67, and possibly 68 is possible with this steel. I got 67 with Hitachi white with minimal effort, and time permitting, I will try to get 68 with refinement.
 
Try a series of coupons, with austentizing at 1470, 1480, 1490, 1500, 1510, and see which gets the highest Rc out of quench. That would be the number I use. Its simple to figure out tempering from there. I would suspect Rc67, and possibly 68 is possible with this steel. I got 67 with Hitachi white with minimal effort, and time permitting, I will try to get 68 with refinement.

If you have access to a RC tester, that would definitely be the way to go. Dial that baby in!
 
Back
Top