Heat treating 1075

Justin Presson

Justin Presson

Well-Known Member
Going to heat treat those 4 bowies this weekend. The steel is 1075 from NJSB and I have only done stock removal to them. So my little forge is what I'm going to use. Is thermal cycling necessary, I think I know what everyone is going to say but want to make sure as I do not have a way to tell temp. It's all going to be by eye and magnet.
I always seems to get confused on the thermal cycling. Take above critical and then down in temps after that right?
I just dont want to do more harm then good.
Thanks guys
JP
 
How old is your steel? I mean, have you had it for a while or was it recently purchased from Aldo?
 
I think that's from his new batch, which I have not personally used but I've gotten a few phone calls from friends and heard other stories of people having issues with it.

It wouldn't hurt to thermal cycle, or better, normalize then thermal cycle ANYTHING from Aldo. Or better still, stop buying steel from Aldo.
 
J. Doyle said:
I think that's from his new batch, which I have not personally used but I've gotten a few phone calls from friends and heard other stories of people having issues with it.

It wouldn't hurt to thermal cycle, or better, normalize then thermal cycle ANYTHING from Aldo. Or better still, stop buying steel from Aldo.
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LOL...well that's not good! Where are you getting your 1075 from?
 
But John let's say your normal heat treat with hamon on 1075.
Normalize
Thermocycle
Clay blade
Heat to critical then quench
Temper
Grind
Handsand
Reveal amazing hamon
Drink adult beverage


That sound about right :)
 
[QUOTE=" Or better still, stop buying steel from Aldo.[/QUOTE]
Just about all I’ve ever used is 1084 from Aldo. I have some 1075 that I bought a few months ago. What’s wrong with it?
 
luciusx5 said:
Just about all I’ve ever used is 1084 from Aldo. I have some 1075 that I bought a few months ago. What’s wrong with it?
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One doesn't need to look very hard to find numerous (dozens, if not more) RECENT reports, some from some very established and capable makers, who have had a laundry list of problems with his steel. Problems include but are not limited to: severe warping issues, hardening problems, tempering problems, normalizing problems, chemistry WAY out of spec for given composition (like a completely different steel than advertised), hard/soft spots in same blade, etching issues, finishing issues, general 'weirdness' and unpredictability.

I've had personal experience with some of that.

Steels that *MAY* be problematic include but are not limited to W2, 1095, 1084, 1075, 52100, AEB-L, nitro-v

At some point one has to wonder if its worth it anymore. My time is too limited and valuable to trouble shoot major issues with steel, especially when *to my knowledge* no certs/heat numbers have been provided to help the makers troubleshoot and makers are instead told they must not know what they're doing.

As I type this, I realize this is probably better in a separate thread so we should probably take further discussion of this elsewhere.

Sorry for the thread derail Justin.
 
Well I went for it tonight. Holly crap I'm exhausted trying to get all 4 of those big blades normalized, thermal cycled and quenched in my little forge. Needless to say it took alot longer then I thought and was physically and mentally exhausting! Maybe I'm getting old, I just turned 37 yesterday :)

Here they are clayed and after quench. They are in the oven tempering now.

Fingers crossed. All of them skated a file so that's good, time will tell on the hamons.

Thanks for the input John.

IMG_20190406_235243_914.jpgIMG_20190407_000625_418.jpg
 
Looking good Justin! I have one in 1075 that’s almost ready to heat treat and it will be my first attempt at a hamon. Watching this thread very closely. :)
 
Here they are after tempering. The one on the right I did not clean up very good after normalizing and thermal cycling so it alot of decarb, scale junk or whatever on it so I'm not sure how it's going to turn out. It also has some weird spots on it.
CxZ334B.jpg
 
Also this is a timely thread for me. I just cut out the profile for a small skinner using W2. I'm thermal cycling it right now.
 
Hey, Justin, just saw this thread. You get about the same result as I do with Hamons. I clay them up so cool and when they are finished they look very plane and nothing like John Doyle's. I heat treat in a propane forge with a baffel and a thermocouple. According to my thermocouple I can hold a very steady temp for quite some time but I can't test my blades so I don't really know how well my system works (They do skate a file). Just wondered if you have figured it out to get more action in the Hamon and more Ashie. By the way, I also use Aldos 1075 and W-2.

Wallace
 
wmhammond said:
Hey, Justin, just saw this thread. You get about the same result as I do with Hamons. I clay them up so cool and when they are finished they look very plane and nothing like John Doyle's. I heat treat in a propane forge with a baffel and a thermocouple. According to my thermocouple I can hold a very steady temp for quite some time but I can't test my blades so I don't really know how well my system works (They do skate a file). Just wondered if you have figured it out to get more action in the Hamon and more Ashie. By the way, I also use Aldos 1075 and W-2.

Wallace
Click to expand...
No I have not had a chance to experiment more. I want to try some more and see if I can get some better results.
 
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