Slip joint spring tempering

diverdale

Well-Known Member
Contemplating my first folder .. the book I have says that the spring needs to be around 45HRC ... what do you guys recommend for tempering to achieve this?
 
whichever steel you use will have a chart that tells you how long and what temperature to temper at to achieve the desired hardness you want.

For example, i temper AEBL blades at 350° to end up at about 61 Rc and springs at 1000° for two hours.
 
For 10xx steels I typically temper around 670F, though lately I’ve just been torching my springs to a deep blue.
 
Is the torching in lieu of oven tempering or after oven tempering?

I should have clarified. I always temper the blade and spring together in my tempering oven (usually around 400F or so) for at least 2 cycles, and then the back spring gets a final spring temper with the torch.
 
45-49 Rockwell for your spring. Whatever steel you are using find the temper you need to get in that range and you will be good.
 
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