I have some old car leaf springs, already heat forged 1 to soften the steel. I did some hitting with hammer on anvil to thin some, it is not easy did not do much. After I cut and shape it and grind to thickness desired, do I heat forge again to quench in veg oil and temper @ 450 deg. in oven. I have done file rasps using this process, will it work on leaf spring as well?. Need some advise from you gentlemen. Rey
leaf spring machete
- Thread starter Rey
- Start date
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koyote
Guest
It's hard to tell exactly which type of steel you have. I have no problems working with unknown steel, but you have to experiment a little, first.
Take some smaller pieces and try the heat treat and temper and see what they do. do you get good flex? is it soft enough without being too soft? - Come back for suggestions on adjustments if you need to.
- make a couple 6-8 inch minimachetes
For the blade
You won't get a full proper textbook anneal, but if you try using the heat/vermiculite or heat/wood ash methods, you should get it soft enough to work well.
Noting that I'm NOT a mastersmith, what I'd do is this:
heat to a little above critical (aim for non magenetic) and hold it in the tongs until it's black, then heat again, a bit more, and try and get it as straight as possible with the hammer. Then heat to just above critical and put it in a bucket/barrel (I use a metal trashcan) full of vermiculite. Let it cool for about 8-12 hours or however long it takes to reach ambient.
Then you are good to grind.
***note that this isn't a specific annealing process for a given known type of steel, but should get you something you can work with with just about any steel I can imagine being used for leaf springs.
Grind away, then for heat treating you'll have the straightest results if you follow a normalizing procedure 3 times, then run your quench and tempering cycles. For machetes I've mostly stuck to 1080/1084 steels with an interrupted quench to make sure I get things straight. The normalizing is really, really critical on these types of blades.
Take some smaller pieces and try the heat treat and temper and see what they do. do you get good flex? is it soft enough without being too soft? - Come back for suggestions on adjustments if you need to.
- make a couple 6-8 inch minimachetesFor the blade
You won't get a full proper textbook anneal, but if you try using the heat/vermiculite or heat/wood ash methods, you should get it soft enough to work well.
Noting that I'm NOT a mastersmith, what I'd do is this:
heat to a little above critical (aim for non magenetic) and hold it in the tongs until it's black, then heat again, a bit more, and try and get it as straight as possible with the hammer. Then heat to just above critical and put it in a bucket/barrel (I use a metal trashcan) full of vermiculite. Let it cool for about 8-12 hours or however long it takes to reach ambient.
Then you are good to grind.
***note that this isn't a specific annealing process for a given known type of steel, but should get you something you can work with with just about any steel I can imagine being used for leaf springs.
Grind away, then for heat treating you'll have the straightest results if you follow a normalizing procedure 3 times, then run your quench and tempering cycles. For machetes I've mostly stuck to 1080/1084 steels with an interrupted quench to make sure I get things straight. The normalizing is really, really critical on these types of blades.
Steve Randall
Well-Known Member
You might try tempering at 375 for 2 hr x2 most leaf spring steel is 5160 ( 450 might be on the high side ) and definitely normalize it 3 time. Have fun and good luck...steve
Doug Lester
Well-Known Member
When experimenting with an unknown metal it is probably a little easier to start out a little on the low side, as Steve suggested. That way if you test out the edge and it chips a little all you have to do is grind out the chip and then retemper at about 25 degrees higher incriments until you are satified with the hardness. I you over temper the only thing that you can do is go back and reharden the blade and the retemper at 25 degree lower incriments.
Doug Lester
Doug Lester