I have just heat treated my first (using stock removal) blank, 52100. I only have the Rockwell files, but it seems to come out fine except for some warping. As hardened the 65 file would barely scratch it, and after tempering it is somewhere between 55 and 60 rockwell. I quenched in canola oil at about 125-130 degrees F. So I guess I'm fairly happy with that but I came up with a few questions.
Not really sure why the blank warped, I cut out the shape rough on the bandsaw, drilled a few holes and ground to near final dimensions. Is the best attempt to straighten the blank to retemper and try to straighten the blank while hot?
I followed the heat treat program at this link, and my question is, if I'm doing the stock removal method do I need to do the normalizing and spheroidize anneal? I have the impression that these steps would be necessary after forging? If it matters I got my 52100 from New Jersey Steel Baron which I understand ships annealed.
The blank developed quite a bit of scale during hardening, would you generally wrap 52100 with stainless foil before hardening? Because of the chromium? If wrapping in stainless foil would you add a few small wood chips?
From what I've read I understand that generally you want to temper ASAP after hardening once the blank gets to or near ambient temp. It takes nearly 2 hours for my oven to cool down to tempering temps. Is waiting 2 hours to temper an issue?
TIA
Not really sure why the blank warped, I cut out the shape rough on the bandsaw, drilled a few holes and ground to near final dimensions. Is the best attempt to straighten the blank to retemper and try to straighten the blank while hot?
I followed the heat treat program at this link, and my question is, if I'm doing the stock removal method do I need to do the normalizing and spheroidize anneal? I have the impression that these steps would be necessary after forging? If it matters I got my 52100 from New Jersey Steel Baron which I understand ships annealed.
The blank developed quite a bit of scale during hardening, would you generally wrap 52100 with stainless foil before hardening? Because of the chromium? If wrapping in stainless foil would you add a few small wood chips?
From what I've read I understand that generally you want to temper ASAP after hardening once the blank gets to or near ambient temp. It takes nearly 2 hours for my oven to cool down to tempering temps. Is waiting 2 hours to temper an issue?
TIA