Hi All,
I've been digging around the forum lately, boning up on my heat treating protocol. I realized that I'd never really optimized my technique for the new gear I have in my shop.
Anyway, I was looking for some info on heat treating 15n20, and I was rather surprised that I didn't find any at all. Ultimately, the reason I'm looking in to 15n20 is of course because it's a constituent in my damascus. At the end of the day I'm working on refining my ht for damascus specifically--but I thought the best way to go about that would be to get a better understanding of the two steels (1084 and 15n20) first.
So what have you all found?
Also, a sub-question: I would tend to assume that since 15n20 is very commonly recommended with 10XX's for damascus, that proper treatment of one would not be detrimental to the other. Would this be a valid assumption?
Thanks,
Zack
Zack Jonas
Journeyman Smith
Hello Zack. Basically 15N20 is 1075 with a small percentage of nickel, say 2%. I heat treat it just like 1084. In damascus the 1084-15N20 mix will give you approximately .8% carbon when done. The heat treat for 15N20 will not be at all detrimental to the 1084. Just heat treat them pretty much the same. They are easy to weld and have good contrast.
Brion
Brion Tomberlin
Anvil Top Custom Knives
ABS Mastersmith
Thanks Brion. Yeah I've been using it for years actually. And I have certainly heat treated lots of it without any big issues. But I was sitting here contemplating my MS test blades and realized I didn't know much about the 15n20 specifically. Thought I might better learn a thing or two about it. Thanks for the info. Cheers, Zack
Zack Jonas
Journeyman Smith
