I'm working on a couple of knives ( my first) out of o1. Doing some reading and discovered that o1 needs to be oil quenched. I had planned to do it in my plate quencher. I have, however, read of more than one account of pllate quenching o1 with no problems. Anyone have annectdotal evidence or experience plate quenching o1?
I can't offer anything anecdotally as I have only oil quenched O1. Immediately, one thinks NO! as the O in O1 means oil right? However, according published curves, it looks perfectly doable. Take a look at the TTT diagram for O1 at Kevin Cashen's site. http://www.cashenblades.com/steel/o1.html Quenched in 10 seconds or less and you should be fine. Looking forward to hearing about your results.
Thanks Dan. I had also read one account of an individual who quenched in oil for only a second or two and then transfered to quench plates for the rest in order to avoid warpage. I guess I'll try and see.
I am firmly in the ‘No,’ camp. The plate quench may have yielded hardness because O1 can ‘shallow’ harden. The File may have skated on the outside of the steel, but I would be completely surprised and astonished if plate quenching O1 yielded deep/ through hardening. I understand true quench oils are difficult to acquire in the Canadian market in the quantities that we would use, but you can quench O1 in canola-oil because we are not quenching large/ thick industrial cross-sections. As to 01 warps. You can oil quench ‘fully,’ unlike the guy you mentioned, and if you have a warp, use a straight bar or angle steel in the temper cycles to straighten them. I’ve only ever had a warps in 01 at 1/8 (0.125). If you want an Air hardening / Plate quenching carbon steel A2 is the way to go.
Thanks Griff. I'm not going to risk my newly minted knives and will use oil. I was only wondering if it was a "recommendation" ( like use Duracell batteries only) or an absolute.
No worries Toby, and also, so we are clear because I know text can seem cold, I am definitely not telling you not to do it...each to their own and all that, I was just saying I wouldn’t. Best of luck with your knives man
No sweat Griff, even if you were cold - I have thick skin. A thick skull it would seem at times. Question regarding warp, if you feel inclined... does the warp happen immediately upon dunking the knife in oil, or does it happen at lower temps while still in oil? Just wondering about the validity of this guy's claim of dunking then plate quenching. It would make sense if the warp happened at 1000f or less that he would fully harden in oil and have the knife clamped in time for any warping.
I swear my warp happened as the blade started cooling to room temp. I know warps can happen directly in the quench, but mine seem to sneak up on me. It looked straight out of the quench and so I clamped it in the vice at the handle and let it cool, when I came back to it it was warped. Again this was O1 at 1/8th /0.125” thickness, which of course was thinner than that having the bevels ground pre-heat-treat. To fix that one I clamped the knife to a piece of angle iron and did the first 2hr temper. It straightened, but I clamped it for the second 2 hours for good measure.
warps can happen under 400F since that is the range Martensite starts to form and the blades dimensions change. For the question on plate quenching only or a combination of you need to look at the TTT diagram. Determine the rate of cooling and time to reach 600F range or lower from there perform calculations (boring) or check temperature of the steel at the time martensite starts to form. For very thin sections 1/4" and less experiments have shown using chilled plates will get the job done in many cases.
