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tempering stainless spring steel
FrankV -
Thursday, July 5, 2007 - 1:41pm
heat treating | kiln | tempering I am hoping to start working with stainless spring steel soon but had a question about heat treating it. Annealing is not a problem, but when doing some research I saw that you need to bring the kiln to 900 degrees and maintain that temperature for a specified time. Does anyone know whether you put the piece in the kiln then bring it up to temp, or do you allow the kiln to pre-heat to the specified temp then insert the piece? thanks!  got it
FrankV -
Friday, July 6, 2007 - 10:16am
so the manufacturer should be able to furnish me the info? thanks! this is really going to be my first journey into the world of heat treating so I am attempting to collect as much info as I can before I start trashing some material! My biggest fear is working a piece for HOURS, then attempting to temper it, and accidentally making it too brittle and cracking/totally destroying it!  Frank, You can't crack a
Rich Waugh -
Friday, July 6, 2007 - 10:54am
Frank, You can't crack a piece by "tempering" it. Tempering is the act of reducing the hardness to improve toughness, usually done by heating to a temperature much below the Curie (transformation) point of the metal. When you heat to the Curie point and quench, you are "hardening" the metal, andit is possibly very brittle. It is then tempered to make it tougher, though less hard. Hope this helps. Rich |
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ArtMetal
Frank, That depends entirely
Frank,
That depends entirely on the particular alloy you ae heat treating. Different alloys call for different heat treating methods; there is no one method that will work for all alloys. You need to get the heat treating specs from the manufacturer of the particular alloy you're using and follow their guidelines exactly.
In the case of some of the stainless alloys, and a number of high-alloy carbon steels, the heat treating specs call for very precise control of time and temperature. Some call for letting the piece cool at a rate not to exceed 3 degrees per hour until it reaches room temperature. That would mean several weeks in a computer-controlled oven. That's just *one* reason why knives made from high-alloy steels are so expensive.