2 White steel laminate blades

The 1600 was meant as a stress relief. did not notice I was way off when programming my temps. it’s been hard lately to find time to work on my knives and definetly was not paying attention when I programmed that. By cool over night I only meant that once the knife comes up to temp and I turn off the kiln I let the blade cool inside the kiln and take it out in the morning. The blade is usually cooled down enough after 2hr but I do most of my knife work at night.

I will adjust the temps as you guys said once I’m able to work on the blade again. I will do 2-3 cycles at 1300, adjust my temps and take another stab at it.

HSC: thank you very much for the offer, I’ll be sure to let you know if I need some blades tested. Haven’t had much time to work on much lately so once I get everything sorted out I’ll contact you.

Thank you again everyone,
Kevin
 
You "should" re-normalize that blade. Again, allowing it to slow cool in the kiln overnight is not good for White 2 ( or any hypereutectoid steel ). Cycling 2-3 times at 1300 is not going to do anything except stress relieve the steel. But any heat higher than that also stress relieves (as long as it is air cooled and not quenched). What I would do now:

Re-normalize. 1600F or 1650f 5 minutes air cool only. No slower than still air
Thermal cycle 2-3 times at or around 1475f. Air cool only. You can do descending heats if desired, like 1500, 1475, 1450. Going below ~1414F isn't going to do anything for you, as thermal cycling is all about taking care of possible enlarged aus grain, and that only happens once the steel is fully austenite, roughtly 1414-1425f for White steel. You can quench on the last cycle if you like, otherwise air cool only.
Harden: 1450f or 1475f 10 minutes, P50 quench
temper
 
Samuraistuart,

Thank you, I got that all down in my HT notebook now. As soon as I’m home tonight I’ll punch in those numbers in the Evenheat.

I should have known better than to assume I was thinking straight when I did that 1600° cycle. I usually obsess over technical stuff like temperatures now because I’m afraid of doing something wrong. At least with steel you can always try again. I’ll check over my other temps and programs to make sure they’re ok too.

As for tempering, in your opinion, would 400° give a significant advantage over 425° in edge retention for white #2? Or does the risk of micro chipping at a 400° temper make 425° a better option? I would assume if everything goes right 400° would give in the upper end of 61RC (maybe 62) while 425° would be around the lower end of 59-60°.

When I described this blade as a tanto it is a relatively loose description. I’m going for more of a generic drop point EDC blade with aspects of a traditional tanto in the design.

Thank you,
Kevin
 
I use 1425f with Hitachi white#2. No drop in hardness with my testing, and better hamon activity.
 
Willie,

I tried lower aus temps but I don’t seem to be getting the whole blade up to temp, resulting in the hamon appearing far from where I put my clay. I don’t know if this is because my kiln isn’t getting hot enough or I just need a soak time longer than 10min. I had a similar problem with my 1075 from Aldo, using 1450° and soaking for 5min resulted in the hamon being only 1/8” from the edge of the blade. On my second attempt I increased the temp by 15° and soaked for 5 more min. When I quenched the white steel blade I had the same problem, even with a 10min soak.

Do you think I should try 1450° again but with a 15min soak? Or should I still go ahead with 1475° and a 10min soak?

Kevin
 
I haven’t gone higher than 1440f, remember each kiln might be out by 25-50f from the temp it lists. Use what works for your kiln. If you are going for a hamon, use the lowest temp you can get away with.

For kitchen knives, Rc64 is fine in Hitachi white #2, other knives I go Rc62.
 
I’ll stick with 1475 for 10min then. I’m assuming going forward my kiln if off by around 25° ,+- 10°, can’t really tell exactly how much it’s off by.

I should be able to get all of this done tonight if I get out of work on time.

Thanks again guys

Kevin
 
As far as the tempering temps, that is just something you'll need to test yourself. Will 400f offer "significant" better edge retention over 425F? No. But what works best with your intended application will need to be "dialed in". When working with a new steel, it's best to temper low, then test. If that low temper and higher hardness works for your application and edge geometry without chipping (whether that's 300f or 350f or whatever) stick with that. No need to go higher temps/lower hardness. If chipping occurs, then a higher temp may be necessary. I haven't done White steel in a few years, and don't remember what HRC I was getting with what temps. But usually with low alloy oil quench high carbon steels (hyper-eutectoid), 400F tempers I am still in the 63HRC range, which is great for hunters and kitchen knives. I even like kitchen knives harder, like 64-65HRC, and often only temper at 350F, sometimes 300F (knives that will be taken care of and not abused by their owners). Good luck!
 
Here how the hamon turned out the second time around: https://imgur.com/a/MgID2rp


After softening then cycling the blade (allowing it to air cool not cool over night like I used to), I put the my clay on the blade again and even made sure to put it on thinner this time just incase. I then heated the the knife to 1475 and held for 10min. Then quenched in parks 50 until cool enough to put in the oven at 425, tempered 2x for 1hr.

Even just at 220 grit the hamon is showing pretty well, and there is some nice activity going on. It is a little hard to show in the pictures for now. I’m going to sand the blade from 220 to 400, 600, 800, 1,000. I’ll probably make a separate thread to show that since this thread would be getting off topic. I’ll post a link to it when I do.

Thanks again everyone,
Kevin
 
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