Damascus Heat Treating

CDHumiston

CDHumiston

Well-Known Member
I bought some Damascus that is already flattened out and ready for stock removal knife making. It is USA made from 5160, 15n20, and Ni200. I want to heat treat using my Paragon oven as I don't have a forge.

Can anyone give me some time and temp recommendations or process? I do have a very nice quench tank and both Parks AAA and Parks 50 oils. If this steel could be plate quenched that would be even better, but I think it may require oil quenching. School me...
 
Your best results will be out of the oven vs the forge so that’s good you are not using a forge. Both 15N20 and 5160 have very similar heat treat procedures, and should respond well to 1475 for 7 minutes then into AAA. Should come out right around 63HRC. I prefer a 350 temper, 2x 2hrs, for about 60-61. Parks 50 is a little faster than needed, but that should work too. Should probably do a normalizing procedure before HT too if you don’t know what state it’s in already. You aren’t going to be able to plate quench it.
 
Did you purchase the steel from the maker, Chris? If so, I'd ask what state he supplies it in, and how much work it needs to get to good grain size and if it's been normalized.
 
Sorry for the sideways picture, that’s the first time I added a pic from my phone here and surprised it even worked. I usually leave the blade in for about 4 min. Check with an extension magnet if good I leave for another minute or so. I quench in parks 50 for a short time then go to aluminum plates. I’m heat treating a folder blade of Alabama Damascus tomorrow.
 
As for neutralizing with windex, I don’t know that windex even has ammonia in it anymore, I can never find it on the labels anymore so I bought a jug of ammonia and add it to windex to make sure. Half the time I mix up some baking soda and water and swish the blade around in that.
 
I did 1500 for 5 minutes in my kiln, then quenched in AAA, tempered 350 for 2 hours, twice, for most of my Alabama Damascus pieces.
 
Taz575 said:
I don't have a tester. I had hardness chisels, but haven't gotten used to using them yet.
Click to expand...

I tried using the hardness testing files, but they didn't work out for me. I got lucky and found a guy who does hardness testing for the aviation community for a living. He only lived a half a mile from me and gave me a great deal on a hardness tester. He also delivered it, set it up and taught me how to use it!

s-l1600.jpg
 
C.D., here's the Alabama blade I just finished. this folder was wrapped in a towel and put away last year, I made a blade for it out of Vegas forge stainless Damascus that came out looking really good.
unfortunately, when I cut the lock face on the blade I cut it for a left hand folder. by the time I realized what I did it was too late to correct it and at that point the knife was ruined. :(
I recently decided to finish it but never backward engineered a liner lock so I did it with Alabama Damascus instead of the more expensive stainless Damascus. it finished nicely, and I'll never cut the lock wrong again, I know that!

rrfrTS2.jpg

rxhmgwl.jpg
 
bladegrinder said:
C.D., here's the Alabama blade I just finished. this folder was wrapped in a towel and put away last year, I made a blade for it out of Vegas forge stainless Damascus that came out looking really good.
unfortunately, when I cut the lock face on the blade I cut it for a left hand folder. by the time I realized what I did it was too late to correct it and at that point the knife was ruined. :(
I recently decided to finish it but never backward engineered a liner lock so I did it with Alabama Damascus instead of the more expensive stainless Damascus. it finished nicely, and I'll never cut the lock wrong again, I know that!

rrfrTS2.jpg

rxhmgwl.jpg
Click to expand...

That is a very nice-looking knife! I don't think I'll ever make my way into folders. Thanks for the pics!
 
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