"Jim Wilkins" wrote in message
...
On Nov 1, 9:14 am, Bob Engelhardt wrote:
Jim Wilkins wrote:

...

Heating it red and quenching when the red disappears may improve how
well it turns. ...

Does that mean "Heating it red, letting it air cool until the red
disappears, and then quenching"?

And, what does this do to the steel?

Always on the lookout to learn something new,
Bob

It's called a Water Anneal. Exactly what it does depends on the steel
composition and your idea of 'red hot'. I've seen it in several
Lindsay books as an alternative to annealing or normalizing, along
with hearsay evidence that it leaves the steel in the best or
preferred condition for machining with HSS tools. There was no mention
of checking for the Curie point with a magnet.

In my own limited experience it makes the steel slightly harder and
less gooey than a full anneal with overnight cooling in the wood
stove, though that works well too and is easier with larger pieces.

http://www.knives.com/heatreat.html

jsw

It sounds similar to normalizing, which also improves machinability. You
keep the heating brief to avoid grain growth, and it retains some hardness.

That is, normalizing does. The difference is that you're talking about a
fast quench, whereas normalizing is quenched in air (without insulation, as
for a full anneal).

I can't speak for what it does to a low-carbon steel, like water or gas
pipe, but it's very effective when the steel has a high carbon content.

FWIW, I've never had success getting clean cuts on water pipe, either. But I
didn't experiment much with it. I just finished with a file. g

--
Ed Huntress