Brain Fart Heat Treating 440C

[CDHumiston]

I got sidetracked by the wife with some chores. I was preparing to heat treat a few 440C blades. I threw them in the oven without foil wrapping them!

I didn't even notice until I pulled them out at the end of the cycle. Are they ruined? From what I read it's just going to be hard to finish grind the scale off...

 

[KenH]

It's really hard to say - how much scale is on them? Grind it off and see how it works is about the only way to tell for sure. If the blade is a really thin .060" or .040" I'd expect it's most likely ruined. If it's 3/16" and more I'd expect it's still good.

 

[CDHumiston]

It's really hard to say - how much scale is on them? Grind it off and see how it works is about the only way to tell for sure. If the blade is a really thin .060" or .040" I'd expect it's most likely ruined. If it's 3/16" and more I'd expect it's still good.

Thanks. The scale doesn't look too bad. Most of it seemed to fall off after the aluminum plate quench.

The blades are pretty thick. Right around .130 to .2 between the 3 blades.