"Ed Huntress" wrote in message
...
...
Oh, I forgot: Wrapping in stainless steel foil is commonly done for
onesies and twosies of alloy steels, but I don't know if it's
effective enough for plain-carbon steel. Maybe.
...
Ed Huntress

It works for O-1. I smear some Ivory soap on the steel and add charcoal to
the pouch for good measure. The cutting tool comes out light grey after
quenching and cuts relatively hard steel like truck springs with only
minimal grinding or honing.

Tin can steel works pretty well if you don't have the stainless foil. I
leave one end open and cram in charcoal so the tool will shake out easily
into the quench pot.

jsw

On Fri, 16 Dec 2011 09:47:14 -0500, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:


"Ed Huntress" wrote in message
.. .
...
Oh, I forgot: Wrapping in stainless steel foil is commonly done for
onesies and twosies of alloy steels, but I don't know if it's
effective enough for plain-carbon steel. Maybe.
...
Ed Huntress

It works for O-1. I smear some Ivory soap on the steel and add charcoal to
the pouch for good measure. The cutting tool comes out light grey after
quenching and cuts relatively hard steel like truck springs with only
minimal grinding or honing.

Tin can steel works pretty well if you don't have the stainless foil. I
leave one end open and cram in charcoal so the tool will shake out easily
into the quench pot.

jsw


What does the soap do?

FWIW, I wrap in foil and then put one charcoal bricket in the oven.
I'm sure I got this advice on RCM, probably 10+ years ago.

Karl

On Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:17:30 -0500,
wrote:

On Fri, 16 Dec 2011 09:47:14 -0500, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:


"Ed Huntress" wrote in message
. ..
...
Oh, I forgot: Wrapping in stainless steel foil is commonly done for
onesies and twosies of alloy steels, but I don't know if it's
effective enough for plain-carbon steel. Maybe.
...
Ed Huntress

It works for O-1. I smear some Ivory soap on the steel and add charcoal to
the pouch for good measure. The cutting tool comes out light grey after
quenching and cuts relatively hard steel like truck springs with only
minimal grinding or honing.

Tin can steel works pretty well if you don't have the stainless foil. I
leave one end open and cram in charcoal so the tool will shake out easily
into the quench pot.

jsw


What does the soap do?

It provides a little carbon to help prevent scale and it probably
helps prevent decarb, as well.


FWIW, I wrap in foil and then put one charcoal bricket in the oven.
I'm sure I got this advice on RCM, probably 10+ years ago.

Karl

Just be aware that charcoal briquettes put out VOLUMINOUS amounts of
carbon monoxide when heated. You might want to put a CO detector
nearby -- not that one briquette is going to flood the room with CO,
but you'll want to be aware of any concentration around the furnace.

In commercial heat-treating, CO is a commonly used source of
atmospheric carbon. Where they want to simply avoid oxygen, big
continuous-process heat-treat muffle furnaces often dissociate
ammonia (NH3) and pump the combined N and H gases into the furnace to
purge oxygen. Whether they use a CO atmosphere or a N/H atmosphere,
the overflow is burned off at the furnace outlet to prevent explosions
from CO or H2.

So you can avoid changing the carbon content of the steel either by
purging oxygen, or by "doping" the atmosphere with some carbon to
combine with any oxygen that's present in the atmosphere. Obviously,
getting a neutral result that neither adds nor subtracts carbon from
the steel is a tricky proposition with the carbon-rich atmosphere.

--
Ed Huntress

wrote in message
...
On Fri, 16 Dec 2011 09:47:14 -0500, "Jim Wilkins"
...
It works for O-1. I smear some Ivory soap on the steel and add charcoal to
the pouch for good measure. The cutting tool comes out light grey after
quenching and cuts relatively hard steel like truck springs with only
minimal grinding or honing.
jsw

What does the soap do?
Karl

An animal fat based soap bakes into the hard protective crud layer that's so
difficult to scrub off a barbecue, though quenching from red heat knocks it
right off. As Boy Scouts we learned to rub Ivory on the bottom of cooking
pans so the soot from the campfire would wash off easily.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_stearate

I've read that a paste of flour and salt works too.

jsw