Heat Treating W2 from Aldo

D

Don McNeil

Well-Known Member
Okay so I have some W2 coming from Aldo and I have never used a water quenching steel. I as wondering if anyone here has experience using it and how you are heat treating / quenching it. As always any help is greatly appreciated...I pm'd LRB on this same subject and when he answers I will make sure to post his thoughts here. He has given me good advice in the past on heat treat matters.

thanks,
Don
 
I have done more research on W2 than any other steel, and as such it is my favorite....along with 52100. It isn't difficult to heat treat at all, but to get the performance W2 offers, you must have control over temperature and time. If all you have is a forge to heat treat in...it will be difficult to hold at the proper temp for the proper time. I like to normalize and grain refine all carbon steel, to know EXACTLY how the steel is set up internally, but isn't necessary. A simple W2 heat treat would be to bring up to 1475F (using Aldo's W2 with .93% carbon 1475 is a good temp...if it was the higher carbon W2 with 1.2% carbon we would use 1425-1450F). Hold at 1475 for 10 minutes, and quench into Parks 50 oil. W2 needs a FAST quench. Parks 50 gives us that without risking cracks in a water/brine quench. W2 is a water quenching steel....in industrial sizes only. Knife sized instruments risk being torn apart in a water/brine quench so we use a fast oil. If you don't have Parks 50 or simliar commercial oil, canola oil at 130F will work in a pinch... but is not ideal. Brine is a good quenchant, but you do risk cracks in a thin cross section like a knife. Temper twice for 2 hours at 400F maybe 420F. If you want to normalize and grain refine, I use this recipe......1650F cool to black in air. 1550F cool to black in air. 1450F cool to black in air. 1350F cool to black in air. 1475 for 10 minutes into Parks 50. 2 hour temper at 400 twice.
 
Thank you Stuart...I will be forging the W2 but I also have a heat treat oven. Now to find some Parks 50...
 
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In my opinion, Stuart nailed it. If I was doing the HT, I would not change anything he suggested. I have no hands on experience with W2, but everything he said correlates to that make up of steel. You are basically using the same HT as you would with 1095, and in doing so, I would expect a perfect HT result.
 
thats pretty much spot on ( whats written above ) as to what i do here , only thing i can add is instead of the parks 50 or canola , i use thermo resistant transmission fluid ( i get good results with Red Line 30204 ) though the fumes are nasty so use sealed eye protection ( this stuff is acidic and will screw your eyes up ) and i use a polish army gas mask ( they are cheap but the filters do work ) and seem to last a good 6-8 hours of use but do swap them out as again this stuff( the fumes ) will block up and suddenly , and do so only away from folks , i'm in the outback so the only thing close by is me ..
 
LRB Thank you for the vote of confidence on the W2 heat treat. I would like to give credit where credit is due, and to thank Kevin Cashen for all his input, and taking the time to answer questions I've had over the years.
 
GAK Jack said:
thats pretty much spot on ( whats written above ) as to what i do here , only thing i can add is instead of the parks 50 or canola , i use thermo resistant transmission fluid ( i get good results with Red Line 30204 ) though the fumes are nasty so use sealed eye protection ( this stuff is acidic and will screw your eyes up ) and i use a polish army gas mask ( they are cheap but the filters do work ) and seem to last a good 6-8 hours of use but do swap them out as again this stuff( the fumes ) will block up and suddenly , and do so only away from folks , i'm in the outback so the only thing close by is me ..
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Aside from being nasty, toxic, and dangerous, I would rate it too slow for that steel. Canola oil would eliminate all of that, and would be the only really viable second to the Parks #50, if as Stuart said, in a pinch.
 
i'm in Australia , where do i get Parks 50 ? heck, in the outback where i am in Oz , i cant get a lot of stuff , even if available in cities ...

i dunno if its slow , that would mean failed blades , so kinda doubt it eh .. but i'm just a dumb aussie , so what do i know
 
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GAK Jack said:
i'm in Australia , where do i get Parks 50 ? heck, in the outback where i am in Oz , i cant get a lot of stuff , even if available in cities ...

i dunno if its slow , that would mean failed blades , so kinda doubt it eh .. but i'm just a dumb aussie , so what do i know
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But you can get internet service and presumably, mail and packages. ;)

I don't know if it would mean totally failed blades.........maybe just not full potential? I have a hard time thinking that transmission fluid would be fast enough to get maximum potential out of w2...... or a few other steels as well for that matter.

Maybe the blades are okay, just not what they could be.
 
maybe not , but folks seem to think they are better than bought.. i shall give canola a go , see how that goes . but as for parks, i cant find anyone who sells it here , Gameco asked me what it was so that was a dead end , if they dunno what it is , i doubt its here but will ask a few other folks over the weekend and at our upcoming cutlers exhibition

cheers
 
Parks is distributed here in the states by Maxim Oil. They are out of Fort Worth, TX, I believe. Ah yes, 208 Shelby Road Fort Worth, TX 76140 Phone number : (817) 293-4645
 
and i'm in Australia , and thanks to your govt we cant import fluids oils , or even a beer .. cant even by tru oil direct .. never mind ..
 
Jack sorry for the hassle....the obvious thing is for you to move here. We can always use a few more Aussies.

There are some things from Canada I can't get or get done....and I'm 40 miles from the border. Seems like what you have been doing works....why change things?
 
GAK Jack said:
and i'm in Australia , and thanks to your govt we cant import fluids oils , or even a beer .. cant even by tru oil direct .. never mind ..
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Smallshop is right , Aww heck , if what your doing is working .........keep doing it.
If you get some Canola oil , give it a shot , it will make your shop smell a hell of a lot better too , LOL


Dwane
 
If I lived in another country, such as Australia, I would forget the Parks #50, it is too hard to get even here in the states. Houghton international is the largest and oldest quenchant supplier and they are in most countries around the world in one form or another. Their Houghton "K" quench oil is near, if not as fast as, the Parks #50, and better yet, they WANT to do business with you, so they are friendly, helpful, and will take your money; the same is not true of Park Metallurgical, I have done business with both and Houghton is the big boy on the block. Most of the oils sold under another name by resellers are actually Houghton products. I would check into them and see if there is a source for them in your country, then if it is still not possible, go ahead and heat some canola to 130F and proceed
 
I hope to help you guys out down under.....Houghton has a manufacturing plant and sales department in Moorabbin. Here is contact info: Houghton Australia Pty. Ltd.
287 Wickham Rd. (Head Office)
Moorabbin, Vic. 3189 Australia
Phone: +61-3-9555-0344
Fax: +61-3-9555-0748
 
I don't think so stuart at least not in the sense what you are looking for in a beer :) but reading that made me spit mine up :p
 
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