Best way to heat treat saw mill blade.

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Marlin01

Joined
Sep 20, 2011
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Hey everyone.
I know someone here has experience wit this. I have some rusted up old saw mill blade that I have attempted to make a decent blade from. I believe it to be L6. I don't know why but when my blade finished out it had cracks in it that I know were not there prior to quenching. Any thoughts. Thanks
 
Ok, first off it is probably something like 1070-1080 carbon steel with about 2% nickle added..Its good steel..The techincal heat treat would be a 5 minute soak at about 1475° then quench in the fastest oil you have available..We use parks 50..Then temper @400° twice for two hours..
Now if you have a forge bring it up to a dull red temp very slowly and make sure the dull red color is even..Its a shade or so above non-magnetic..Quench in something fairly fast like canola oil..Temper twice @ 400° for two hours..
Ideally you want to normalize it several times before hardening it..Bring it up to that dull red color and let it cool in air to room temp..do that about three times..
 
Sounds good, I was quenching in some old motor oil last time and I was probably too hot. I appreciate the reply and cant wait to give this another shot. Thanks
 
No telling what it is- cut some knife sized strips and do some heat treat experiments. Take notes.
The bottom line is, what works works.
I've made some blades for practice out of sawmill blades and some of them are going strong and much appreciated years later.

And most important, read the topics stickied on the top of the page- some very knowledgeable people have taken the time to write articles that walk you through this and many other beginner topics!
 
It worked great I just finished the blade yesterday. I heat treat in my forge witch is difficult sometimes to get that even heat. I heated the blade up to an orange color then pulled it out and let it die down to the dull red color you described. Quenched it in canola oil and it hardened with no cracks and a file would not touch it. I then tempered it back at 400 two hour intervals and I could not be happier with this knife. I just got the Oak scales epoxied on today. Its a fighter style blade with a long clip with pitting and scale left on the back spine and ricaso area. The blade was quench edge fist and completely submerged immediately in the canola, but it still has a temper line that follows the heat pattern from the forge. Too bad I did not have a torch. As soon as I get my Account upgraded I will post pics here.
Thanks for your help, Marlin
 
Marlin01 said:
It worked great I just finished the blade yesterday. I heat treat in my forge witch is difficult sometimes to get that even heat. I heated the blade up to an orange color then pulled it out and let it die down to the dull red color you described. Quenched it in canola oil and it hardened with no cracks and a file would not touch it. I then tempered it back at 400 two hour intervals and I could not be happier with this knife. I just got the Oak scales epoxied on today. Its a fighter style blade with a long clip with pitting and scale left on the back spine and ricaso area. The blade was quench edge fist and completely submerged immediately in the canola, but it still has a temper line that follows the heat pattern from the forge. Too bad I did not have a torch. As soon as I get my Account upgraded I will post pics here.
Thanks for your help, Marlin
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