[TheForge] to heat treat or not to heat treat... that is my question.

[David E. Smucker]

Andy,  I wouldn't go all the way "down to Rc 35" which is a draw temperature 
of about 1000 F.  Instead I would temper at 500 F which should give a Rc in 
the high 40's, and yield greater than 200,000 psi.  Now in using the small 
end of the bick you might get it to 800 or 900 F which would give you your 
Rc 35 or so and the steel is down to a yield of 170,000. YMMV and experience 
may teach you that 500 is too low a tempering temperature.

For my money 4140 and 4340 are two of the very best engineering steels. 
They just need to be welded with great care in applications where safety is 
an issue such a lifting gear.  In fact we had a rule of NO welding on 4140 
or 4340 in crane applications.

Dave Smucker
Brasstown, NC

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Andrew Vida" <osan at netlabs.net>
Sent: Friday, October 29, 2010 8:48 AM
To: "Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [TheForge] to heat treat or not to heat treat... that ismyquestion.>
>
> Jason Nass wrote:
>> Just finished up an anvil bick of 4140. I'm not overly familiar with 
>> using
>> it for tools, so I am undecided whether to heat treat it and risk it 
>> being
>> to brittle to deal with impact, or just leave it normalized. I'd imagine
>> that being it is a high strength alloy, it should hold up to having hot
>> steel hammered around it, especially being as I ain't gonna be using no 
>> 12#
>> sledges on it. What thoughts might you metallurgist types have on the
>> matter?
>
> I'd HT.  Draw to C35 and you will have one hella-tough bick.  I don't
> recall what temp 35 corresponds with.  Easily looked up, though.
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