Heat treating O-1? 1

[Mattberghofttt]

how can I heat treat O-1 toolsteel with out buying expensive equipment ovens etc.
Would I need a special quenching oil?
The parts that i need to heat treat are not that critical, but need hardening

 

[CoryPad]

It all depends on what you need to do. How big are the parts, how critical is the surface, are the parts sensitive to distortion?

How do you plan to heat the part? You need to reach > 800 [°]C to austenitize the steel. Quenching oils are not that expensive, and you can use a simple steel bucket of sufficient size to drop the part into after heating.

 

[btrueblood]

...and a piece of plywood to set atop the bucket, to snuff any flame that might develop after dropping in a red-hot part (though it is quite unlikely to last long in any case).

 

[redpicker]

You will need a heat treating furnace capable of holding a uniform temperature of 1500F. Depending on part size, you may harden with a forced air cool, but you will probably need an oil quench to achieve maximum hardness. You will also need a tempering furnace to fully temper the parts.

While it would be (theoritically) possible to achieve results with a bellows-blown charcoal fire and a bucket of mineral oil, I wouldn't advise it. Commercial heat treating services exist to provide the service you need. If you don't know what you're doing, don't expect to get acceptable results.

People who know what they are doing go to a commercial heat treating shop.

rp

 

[unclesyd]

As stated above there are ways and means to accomplish your heat treating but as stated it could be hazardous to you and your parts.
Probably the quickest and cheapest way is checkout a few knife makers in your area and the chances are good that one will have th capabilities to do the heat treating. If you can find locally there are knife making magazines that have advertisements for one or two off heat treating jobs and most are quite reasonable.

 

[ajack1]

For small parts you can just use a propane torch, heat the part to a bright cherry red and submerge in oil (of course check the flash point) you will then need to de-scale and polish the surface, heat again gently in the flame until it reaches between pale straw or light blue in colour depending on required hardness and quench in oil again.

Of course this will not work as well as having it done professionally in an oven. Most heat treatment companies offer a collection and delivery service, check out your local area.

 

[Robertmet]

http://www.cashenblades.com/info/steel/o1.html

Cashen is a fine blade maker and very knowledgable about metallurgy.As he says O-1 is not just a simple carbon steel. Note soak times ! He and I have been trying to educate knifemakers about metallurgy on forums such as

http://www.bladeforums.com

I've repeated many times - the better you can control time and temperature the better the final product !