Did I ruin my AEB-L blade with a sketchy foil wrap during HT?

L

Lee Hester

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May 4, 2011
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65
I hardened two knives yesterday in my Evenheat. I was at the end of a roll of stainless foil and got a solid wrap on one knife (with the edges of the foil double-folded over) and a not-great wrap on another blade. I only had enough foil to fold it over once and tamp it down, and I suspect it wasn't good enough. The "sketchy" one came out a solid dark color after HT, where the well-wrapped one came out much lighter. I'm used to seeing some variation in the colors, but this time it is pretty extreme, and I'm wondering if I ruined this blade, or if it is enough to just grind off the outer layer of scale? They were in the kiln for ~20 minutes at 1950F. I don't have a rockwell hardness tester. Thanks!

6Y0axyl.jpg
 
The dark color should just be decarb, as long as you have enough meat to grind it off you should be fine. I don’t do stainless much but that’s my understanding; I’m open to being corrected.
 
Its perfectly fine since it looks from your photo that you hardened flat stock to grind post HT. I made a lot of tests regarding this situation and it makes no difference even if you leave the tang side slightly open. Knife surface will be black, decarb will be gone once you grind. It may be a small problem for chisel grinds, but for 50/50 its fine.

Pablo
 
Just make sure that you grind the actual edge back a smidge, not just the bevels. As in, don't just grind the bevels down to an edge, grind the edge back first a touch, then grind your bevels. By the looks of that photo, the decarb/scale area is heavier towards the edge than the body/spine. When I place a blade into a foil pouch, I like the edge to be next to the initial bend of the envelope, the opposite side of where you crease it 2 or 3 times.
 
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