Easiest stainless steel to heat treat

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Gregor133

Joined
Oct 27, 2016
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Hi,
I have just started to make my own electric heat treatment oven and was wondering what the easiest stainless steel to heat treat is. I do not have any dry ice or cyro. Also can you please include the heat treat process if you know or use one.
Thanks.
 
Well you are putting the cart before the horse. What type knife you intend to make should determine the best/easiest steel to use so if we knew that we could narrow down the selection. You will also need High Temperature stainless steel foil to protect the blade during the soak at high austinizing temps. One of the most forgiving SS is AEB-L easy to grind reasonably priced. The heat treat protocol can be found in the "Stickys" under Heat Treating.
 
AEB-L is the only SS I've used. I don't know how it compares to others with ease of HT, but it is inexpensive, gets full benefit from Dry Ice/ Denatured Alcohol quench (so a plus if you arent set up for LN), and it makes a fantastic knife.
 
Busto said:
Well you are putting the cart before the horse. What type knife you intend to make should determine the best/easiest steel to use so if we knew that we could narrow down the selection. You will also need High Temperature stainless steel foil to protect the blade during the soak at high austinizing temps. One of the most forgiving SS is AEB-L easy to grind reasonably priced. The heat treat protocol can be found in the "Stickys" under Heat Treating.
Click to expand...

I am planning to make 6 small edc fixed blades.
 
I have to agree with John (Kuraki) that is sage advice. Gives you time to gather up other essential materials needed to do a proper SS Heat Treating.
 
Are there any stainless steels that do not require a cyro or deep freeze treatment? Are there ways around doing cyro or freeze?

Can aeb-l be plate quenched and then tempered in an oven (without cyro)?
 
Gregor133 said:
Are there any stainless steels that do not require a cyro or deep freeze treatment? Are there ways around doing cyro or freeze?

Can aeb-l be plate quenched and then tempered in an oven (without cyro)?
Click to expand...

You can do many things ... not all of them get the most from the steel. AEB-L will make a fine knife without cryo

Most all high alloy steels will benefit from a sub-zero treatment ( dry-ice bath or cryo). If you don't do them, it will still be a knife and still get hard .... just not as hard/tough as with the treatments.
AEB-L, and most all knife stainless steels can be plate quenched.

A simple dry ice bath with a few pounds of DI in a gallon of methanol or denatured alcohol will do quite well for sub-zero treatment. It reaches around -100°F. It will cost $5-10 for the DI and the alcohol is reusable after the DI sublimates out.
 
AEB-L is forgiving however to transform remaining soft austenite to martensite requires some form of Cryo/Dry Ice Slurry which is nothing more than Dry Ice/Denatured Alcohol in a 2 liter plastic bottles. To my knowledge there are No Stainless blade materials that fully transform to optimum hardness without some form of Cryo/Sub-Zero Treatment.

Sure you can plate quench you can do anything you want to heat treat the blade.....BUT will it be a usable?
The Steel Manufacturer Gives Heat Treat Protocols for a Reason.
 
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