[TheForge] First hammer heat treat foolishness....

[Bob Ehrenberger]

Mike,

With 3lbs of hot steel you need at least 5 gal of oil, my oil tank is 20 
gal.

But most of the hammer makers that I know use a water quench on 4140 and 
1045.

I would start your oven at 400 and watch the colors.  Every oven is 
different and you kind of need to dial it in and learn what your oven does.

I used to demonstrate at a tourist village and we used old fryer oil which 
was fine when it was from the FF machine, but was really nasty when it was 
the old cat fish oil.

Robert Ehrenberger
Shelbyville, Mo.
eforge at centurytel.net

----Original Message----
Date: Fri, 16 May 2014 17:10:18 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Mike S. via TheForge" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
To: theforge at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [TheForge] First hammer heat treat foolishness....
Message-ID: <8D13F625FE9B0E8-908-1C48D at webmail-m158.sysops.aol.com>
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Learned a few things about an oil quench?
First and foremost is that I need more oil!
A gallon is not nearly enough for a hammer head, I?ve done acceptable
harden/temper treatments on knives and punches with just a large soup
can of motor oil or ATF.
A 3 lb rounding hammer, not a chance.
The oil (motor) boiled up to the rim and the bucket got well over 100
degrees.  Hammer head was too warm to touch after the second quench of
the second face, but OK to hold in hand with the rag I was wiping the
oil off with. It took not quite an hour sitting on the anvil to cool to
the touch.  The faces are hard, but a file will bite at the eye.  Going
to grind and polish the faces this weekend and once I get enough oil,
seeif a MAAP torch in the eye will transfer the heat needed to bring
the faces to dark straw color.

A couple of questions.

How much oil is generally needed to quench a hammer, 3 gallons? 5
gallons? Heading to the ArmyNavy store to look for an ammo box to hold
it, and

With 3 lbs of 4140, is an oven temper at 400 or 425 for a few hours a
workable solution to tempering this hammer?

I?ve also got a burnout furnace, used for firing small scale ceramics
that bottoms out at about 400 and will sit at 800 or 900 degrees pretty
consistently.

Considering how long it took the hammer head to cool down, could the
residual heat in the steel have effectively tempered the faces? (Long
shot, I know)

Thank you,

Michael
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