JPSWorks
Well-Known Member
The issue I am having is with the spring being a bit too soft after heat treating it. I should say tempering issue to be more specific. I did a bunch of searching on this and many other forums for some solid heat treating information for AEB-L steel. Unlike the CPM154 I've used before, which is as easy as downloading the PDF info from Crucible, I cannot locate anything written in stone. Alpha knife supply has tempering info but not up to the temps for a spring. I made a blade and spring yesterday, then heat treated it in my Paragon unit.
Blade and spring in ss foil.
Put in cold and ramped up to 1560 for 10 min to normalize
Then ramped up the 1950 for 15 min.
Quenched between 1" aluminum plates with compressed air and pressure.
Blade in oven at 410 for 2 hours two times
Spring back in Paragon after it cooled to 1000. Then heat tempered it at 1160 for 2 hours. Then I did it again at 1150 for 2 hours. I read somewhere where they did the spring 2 and sometimes 3 times. Most places I see it done only once.
The thing is that the spring still has good snap or tension on the blade but seems to lose it tension after I test it again and again. Has anyone here had good success with using AEB-L for a slip joint or lock back spring? What temp do you normally temper it at, and do you do it more than once? Would doing the second temper for 2 hours cause it to lose its spring and make it not bend back correctly? If so would you help me out with getting the spring temper dialed in? Unfortunately I do not have a Rockwell hardness tester.
Lastly, with stainless steel, can I heat treat the spring again and then temper it with success or is it just a lost cause and time to make another?
Thanks again everyone.
John
Blade and spring in ss foil.
Put in cold and ramped up to 1560 for 10 min to normalize
Then ramped up the 1950 for 15 min.
Quenched between 1" aluminum plates with compressed air and pressure.
Blade in oven at 410 for 2 hours two times
Spring back in Paragon after it cooled to 1000. Then heat tempered it at 1160 for 2 hours. Then I did it again at 1150 for 2 hours. I read somewhere where they did the spring 2 and sometimes 3 times. Most places I see it done only once.
The thing is that the spring still has good snap or tension on the blade but seems to lose it tension after I test it again and again. Has anyone here had good success with using AEB-L for a slip joint or lock back spring? What temp do you normally temper it at, and do you do it more than once? Would doing the second temper for 2 hours cause it to lose its spring and make it not bend back correctly? If so would you help me out with getting the spring temper dialed in? Unfortunately I do not have a Rockwell hardness tester.
Lastly, with stainless steel, can I heat treat the spring again and then temper it with success or is it just a lost cause and time to make another?
Thanks again everyone.
John