heat treating

Heat-harden Brass?

tantoinette — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:24:37 -0600

I am wondering if brass can be heat-hardened. I've made a brass cuff that is a bit too flimsy, and would like to harden it without changing the surface. I've already tried tumbling with steel shot for about 5 hours, but it did not seem to harden it at all. Any suggestions/ideas? I've searched the web and ganoksin, and the answer seems to elude me.

For Gimperfi. Some fun with steel, a hamon, and heat treating

Radharc — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 17:16:31 -0500

Hey Gimperfi,

I mentioned some of the fun you can have with differential hardening, so thought I'd share some pics. This started out as a dull old Nicholson file. I annealed it, then ground it, packed the spine with Satanite refractory clay, and hardened it, creating a differential temper (soft at the spine, super hard at the edge), as well as a hamon, the traditional Japanese visible hardening line. Thought maybe the pics would inspire you to upgrade your rig and get into heat treating. The clay coating:

tempering stainless spring steel

FrankV — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 14:41:26 -0500

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?