Out at the forge saturday, hardened the Pugio, worked on a drawknife, and widened the socket of a fireman's axe that keeps breaking its handles(!).
Finaly, I worked on my old friend, the Gladius, my first experement with distal tapers, light weight, and high-carbon steel in swords. I heat the sword until it's close to straw all over, and quench it. Yay!
However, I'm curious as to how well I did. I bend it, maybe as far as 15 degrees. The bend stays. Problem.
Okay.... Redo. I heat the think a little darker this time, till it's a dark straw all over, and blue on the thin parts of the edge. Quench. Bends will still set. The spring isn't a spring.
Granted, this was not made from spring steel, I made it from L-6 Tool. However, with a carbon count of 1.00, I expected a bit more toughness than I'm getting. Wouldn't you?
Can anyone tell me right off what I'm doing wrong? Anyone have any IDEA?
Uh-Oh: Sword not taking a temper!
-
Destichado
- Archive Member
- Posts: 5623
- Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2000 1:01 am
Ask the boys at
www.swordforum.com
they'll know.
Hun
[This message has been edited by Hun (edited 08-05-2002).]
www.swordforum.com
they'll know.
Hun
[This message has been edited by Hun (edited 08-05-2002).]
-
Patrick
- Archive Member
- Posts: 1040
- Joined: Thu Aug 10, 2000 1:01 am
- Location: Fairbanks, Alaska, USA
Pardon me, but did you actually harden the blade first? L6 is a very good steel and should make a fine sword, but you need to make sure your hardening is done before tempering.
Straw color is only about 400 degrees (maybe 450, depending on alloy content and your perception of what "straw" color is). You need to take that bad boy to about 1500 degrees (Fahrenheit) and quench in oil. Check with a file to see that it is fully hard (if the file won't cut the steel, it is hard). If not, heat just a little further and quench again. Don't overheat. You can check the hardening temp a couple of ways. The most common one is a magnet. When the magnet stops sticking to the steel (just check it every so often as you get into the incandescent range), heat just enough to make the whole blade an even color, then quench immediately. The other way is with a Tempil Stick. Sort of like a chalk that melts at a particular temperature. I got mine at Centaur Forge.
Anyway, the tempering should be done in a controlled fashion. I like the kitchen oven. For a gladius, I'd start with 500 degrees for 2 2-hour cycles, with a full cool-down in between. That is probably as hard as you'd want a sword. If it is still a little too hard, put it in at 525. Repeat both tempering cycles.
The heat-treat is really the most important part of making a piece of steel into a blade. If you try to cut corners here, you will be making a sword-shaped object that won't live up to the potential that it should have, given a good steel and good geometry.
If Krag jumps in here, he does a lot more of this than I do. I am just a hobby knifemaker, he's been doing stuff that I don't even approach.
-Patrick
Straw color is only about 400 degrees (maybe 450, depending on alloy content and your perception of what "straw" color is). You need to take that bad boy to about 1500 degrees (Fahrenheit) and quench in oil. Check with a file to see that it is fully hard (if the file won't cut the steel, it is hard). If not, heat just a little further and quench again. Don't overheat. You can check the hardening temp a couple of ways. The most common one is a magnet. When the magnet stops sticking to the steel (just check it every so often as you get into the incandescent range), heat just enough to make the whole blade an even color, then quench immediately. The other way is with a Tempil Stick. Sort of like a chalk that melts at a particular temperature. I got mine at Centaur Forge.
Anyway, the tempering should be done in a controlled fashion. I like the kitchen oven. For a gladius, I'd start with 500 degrees for 2 2-hour cycles, with a full cool-down in between. That is probably as hard as you'd want a sword. If it is still a little too hard, put it in at 525. Repeat both tempering cycles.
The heat-treat is really the most important part of making a piece of steel into a blade. If you try to cut corners here, you will be making a sword-shaped object that won't live up to the potential that it should have, given a good steel and good geometry.
If Krag jumps in here, he does a lot more of this than I do. I am just a hobby knifemaker, he's been doing stuff that I don't even approach.
-Patrick
-
Destichado
- Archive Member
- Posts: 5623
- Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2000 1:01 am
-
Sasha
- Archive Member
- Posts: 9362
- Joined: Mon Sep 18, 2000 1:01 am
- Location: State of permanent bemusement
I can understand that mistake.Basically the hardening is the turning-the-blade-into-a-non-transparent-piece-of-glass-phase and the tempering is actually weakiening the blade slightly in order to buy it flexibilty and toughness instead of just brittle strength.
Just remember when you do the quench, plunge straight down and stir the oil around the blade with a big stick or a something. Do not wave a red hot sword through the oil, it may warp and bend, Do not quench the blade by putting it in the oil sideways, it may (very likely) warp.
If your blade warps as you do the hardening pass then you get all the fun of doing a red heat and pounding it straight before starting all over again with the hardening.
The tempreture of the oil should not be that much of an issue with a short blade of T6, but swirling the oil to get maximum heat exchange is a really good idea.
Sasha
------------------
Work like you were living in the early days of a better nation
-Oysterband