H & C handles

[sanch]

sanch: that's the beauty of knowledge. i do this without knowledge of the technical aspects. i just do it and it usually works. i did a bit of smithing. my quench of choice was water. brine, oil, or racquefratzium sulphate were not even considered. i''ve found the greatest hindrance to getting it right, is overheating the part. even with care, easy to overheat a file tip and drive out the carbon.

I personally like to quench in pure mineral oil straight 30wt cheap wally world brand! 4qts mixed with 1qt automatic transmission fluid!! I heat it up by putting a piece of cherry red hot rebar in it first. It hasn't failed me yet. (Knocking on wood) usually just heat to non magnetic then back in forge for about 30 more seconds then straight to the quench tank. I agree it's easy to mess up the carbon content.

 

[Steve Adams]

Wow,
As a hammer and chisel guy, this has been interesting to read. Although I use mostly M2 steel 3/16 sq. between 7' to 9" long, the use of wood handles is cool. It would never work for me as a die engraver, but a handle that surrounds my chisel where I can still hit the steel itself would be nice. I mushroom hard steel over time, which leaves me to wonder one thing, how does the wood hold up?

 

[sanch]

Wow,
As a hammer and chisel guy, this has been interesting to read. Although I use mostly M2 steel 3/16 sq. between 7' to 9" long, the use of wood handles is cool. It would never work for me as a die engraver, but a handle that surrounds my chisel where I can still hit the steel itself would be nice. I mushroom hard steel over time, which leaves me to wonder one thing, how does the wood hold up?

Steve, it must be good been around for a while, I gave up on it see my new thread.