Grain Structure, unknown steel

[buck98j]

Fellow Knife dogs. Can anyone give me a little feedback on the grain structure from this breaktest. The steel is from an old buzz saw. It takes a hardening very well and creates a very flexible blade that comes back to dead straight. Do not know the hardness do to lack of hardness files.

Thank you as always
Leon

 

[opaul]

Hard to tell from that photo but the grain looks large and uneven. What was your HT ?

 

[Alden Cole]

^ What he said.

 

[buck98j]

I will try to get better lighting. I think what you are seeing is the pull from the break. 10min soak at 1500 degrees and quenched in Canola oil that was approx 130 degrees

 

[tkroenlein]

Was it tempered when you broke it?

 

[buck98j]

Yes, 400 deg for two hours

 

[billyO]

IMO, the picture isn't nearly enough in focus to really tell anything.

 

[KenH]

To check grain structure, doesn't the break need to be untempered? Direct from quench. Best way to compare grain is to break a drill bit (or old file) and look at that grain. With naked eye there should hardly be visible grain structure, just a "gray" look like you see in broken drill bit.

 

[tkroenlein]

Yup, you gotta snap it untempered to really see what ya got for "grain."

 

[billyO]

Just dug up the picture that's usually part of my standard response to you question. Sorry I didn't think about this yesterday.

 

[opaul]

A ten minute soak is a long time at 1500 degrees. Others may know differently but I don't think I have any carbon steel that requires a 10 minute soak at that temperature.