Kevin may bring some light to my question:
Regarding our frequently used forging steels from the 10XX - W1/2, is there any reason one could not quench the blade directly after a sub-critical spherodizing soak?
Usually after forging I regularly do a heat-reducing thermal cycle process followed by an austenizing quench and a few barely-red sub-critical cycles, but occasionally when doing some San-mai and band saw cutting I like to do a controlled oven process.
After an hour or so I normally remove the blade from the oven and allow to air cool. A quick quench would get me back in the shop a few minutes sooner.
Is there any reason not to?
Karl B. Andersen
Journeyman Smith
Hi Karl,
I'm not Kevin, but I'm Evan, so maybe I'm most of the way there...
Not sure if its an answer or not- but when I'm doing my tempering cycles I'll give my blades a quick dunk between cycles. It doesn't seem to affect them in any negative way, and it does seem to impart some extra toughness. Most importantly, it shaves an hour off my time because I'm not standing around waiting for them to cool.
Hope that helps.
Evan L. Cihak
If the temperatures are entirely within the spheroidizing range, or below, there will be no further transformations based upon rate of cooling. If the spheroidizing was successful all you will have is VERY stable spheroidal carbides in a ferrite matrix, it will simply laugh at your rate of cooling. So, phase wise, there is no reason not to cool it any way you like and some industrial processes will accelerate cooling to expediate the process. This is not to say that there couldn't be some slight distortion issues due to normal thermal contraction of the material.
Tempering is even less of a problem and there is a lot of bladesmithing mythology about rate of cooling from the temper. A quick cool in cold water from the temper has never resulted in disortion for me, and may even have some minor beneficial effects.
"One test is worth 1000 'expert' opinions" Riehle Testing Machines Co.
Thanks Kevin. I'm not trying to get any sort of structure change by cooling fast. I'm just trying to get it cool QUICKLY and go back to work!
Sort of like quenching it right out of temper.
I wasn't positive if a cooling quench would adversely effect the spherodized structure I just invested an hour's time in.
Karl B. Andersen
Journeyman Smith
|quoted:
Hi Karl,
I'm not Kevin, but I'm Evan, so maybe I'm most of the way there...
Not sure if its an answer or not- but when I'm doing my tempering cycles I'll give my blades a quick dunk between cycles. It doesn't seem to affect them in any negative way, and it does seem to impart some extra toughness. Most importantly, it shaves an hour off my time because I'm not standing around waiting for them to cool.
Hope that helps.
I always quench right out of temper. You should never slow cool from temper - at least air cool our most commonly used forging steels, and even that would only take a few minutes from +/- 400 degrees. No need to wait an hour.
My concern was altering the sphereodized structure by quenching from 1250+ degrees.
Karl B. Andersen
Journeyman Smith
