Differential Heat Treat Question

[Casey Brown]

So, I'm hit or miss on my Differential heat treats right now. Mainly because my satanite sometimes peels off of the knife during my normalizing cycles. Not sure how well the cement was even on the knife when I finally quenched. Any suggestions? I ground to a 120 grit finish before ht. (The last one I did I ground to 400 grit bf ht, and it did pretty well.)

 

[Gene Kimmi]

I've only done a couple blades with clay, but I do all my normalizing/grain refinement, then clay the blade for quenching. I usually let this dry a couple days before heating and quenching.

 

[Casey Brown]

Well, my theory is that the metal and cement have very different thermal coefficients of expansion, and that the normalizing cycles caused the cement to lose its connection to the metal. I may have to try cement after normalizing.

 

[J. Doyle]

Do all your normalizing and thermal cycling first and THEN put your clay on.

 

[EdCaffreyMS]

^^^^Ditto^^^^