Metallurgy For Beginner Bladesmiths Who Forge Knives - Henry Vila - Nov 2017

BLADESMITHING and HEAT TREATING STEPS IN PROPER ORDER

Forge – heating the steel to 1500F-2000F to shape it. You do not need to anneal the steel prior to forging. Heating
the steel to >1500F will convert the steel to austenite and the glowing ‘red-orange-yellow’ steel will be soft enough to
hammer. But if you’re working with a long file (very brittle steel) and you only heat one end if it the shock of
hammering may cause the cold end to shatter. Heat the whole file first.

Normalization – Nerd alert! heating the steel to 1600F-1700F to dissolve and redistribute the carbides evenly
throughout the steel. And normalizing is not needed for air hardening steels. It removes stress and strains in the steel,
and any so called “benefit from forging or hammering” goes away, and it also unfortunately grows the grain a little.
Steel coming from the steel mill is usually normalized therefore there is no difference between a stock removal blade
and a forged blade in terms of quality or performance. The steel is evenly heated to +1600F, soak time of 10-15
minutes, and then is air cooled, any faster cooling and you harden or any slower and you anneal. Sometimes it’s done
twice. This step will grow the grain which is addressed in the next step.

Grain reduction cycles – these steps follow normalization with the purpose of reducing the grain. The effect will
slightly lower the hardness of the HT steel but the toughness is extremely improved. A blade with a coarse grain will
break under normal stress/use. Each cycle is 50F-100F less in temperature starting from the last normalization cycle
temperature and is also air cooled to black heat and no soak. Anywhere from 3-5 cycles are typically done. The
following photo shows the coarse grain structure on top and the finer ones under it. Note: the photo below is a bit
misleading due to the common practice to combine normalization and grain reduction into one process and call it
“normalization”. If I could relabel the pic, from top down, it would read:
Over heated during austenitizing (hardening)
1 normalization cycle
1 normalization cycle + 1 grain reduction cycles
1 normalization cycle + 2 grain reduction cycles
1 normalization cycle + 3 grain reduction cycles

But I didn’t perform these steps so I don’t actually know what they did, so I can only assume.
Anneal – this is done to take the blade to its softest state possible allowing to drill holes in the tang or save on belts
when grinding or to make it easier to file by hand. It also reduces stresses in the steel much more than normalizing.
Heat evenly to ‘critical temperature’, no soak, and cool in an insulating medium like vermiculite. Don’t over heat or
you’ll grow the grain again. Critical temperature will vary from steel to steel. Usually it’s the same temperature we use
when heat treating. Nerd alert! Annealing causes carbon to migrate away from iron. For steels about 0.8% carbon
you get pretty much only pearlite. For steels >0.8% carbon you also get pearlite but the excess carbon forms
cementite. For steels < 0.8% carbon you get some pearlite and the excess iron forms ferrite. Note: since most of the
time the cutlery steel we buy is already normalized, has gone through grain reduction cycles, and has been annealed,
there is no need to repeat these steps for stock removal only made blades unless you think you can do a better job
than what was done by the steel mill.

Stock removal – not always needed but recommended. Bring the blade to 50%-90% of its final shape by grinding or
filing. Bevels should be about the thickness of a dime at the edge. If you attempt to grind thinner then you risk the
chance of warping or cracking the edge.

Preheat – not always needed before heat treating; depends on the heat treating recipe of the specific steel

Austenitizing (hardening) – heating the blade to slightly above critical and soak if needed to allow the austenite to
form. Temperature and soak time depends on the heat treating recipe of the specific steel.

Quench – quench means cooling, but when cooling from critical temperature at the proper rate most of the austenite
crystal structure converts to martensite (I’m ignoring bainite for now). Your quench medium and quenching speed
depends on the steel. Too fast of a quench and you might develop micro fractures (Nerd alert! This referred to as
quench embrittlement), too slow and your cooling line enters the pearlite zone or ‘nose’ and you have a pearlite +
martensite mix in your steel. Using the TTT chart for 1095 below you want to follow the red line and not the green line
(too slow). This is why you don’t want to use the wrong quenching medium, choose one with the wrong speed and
you won’t get the best results.
Temper –Tempering converts fresh martensite which is brittle and under stress to a tougher form called tempered
marentiste. Tempering also reduces stresses. Tempering cycles consist or 2 or 3 cycles at a temperature in the range
usually from 350F-450F, but for a few high allow steels the temperature might be as high as 1000F. The result is a
slightly lower hardness but a much improved toughness. Nerd alert! The higher the temper temperature the more
carbon comes out of the interstitial areas that makes fresh martensite so rigid/hard/brittle, and the higher the
temperature the more this happens. This martensite is referred to as tempered martensite or sometimes called beta-
martensite. Alpha martensite is the as quenched fresh martensite (sometimes called untempered martensite). These
two types of martensite are visible under the microscope.

Cryo treatment – this is done right after the first tempering cycle. It helps convert much of the retained austenite to
martensite. You get a slight increase of hardness (1 or 2 points of Rc) but a significant increase in toughness and edge
retention. Some studies show that high alloy steels increase in toughness by 200%-400% and wear resistance increase
by 200% with liquid nitrogen cryo treatment (temps a little colder than -300F). -108F with dry ice and acetone has also
shown some effect but not as much as liquid nitrogen. Cryo treatment could take 6 -12 hours (recommendations vary
from person to person). Tempering after cryo treatment is recommended.

Stock removal and sharpen – These are the final steps excluding the fitting the other blade parts such as scales, guard,
pins, etc. At this point you might need to grind the bevels down even thinner and finally put the edge on the blade.

ALSO IMPORTANT TO KNOW

The chart below shows the as quenched hardness of simple low-alloy steels and how it relates to the carbon content.
If you ever need to know if a specific steel type is “good for a knife” you need to know the carbon content (which can
be found with Google) and then you can determine the maximum as quenched hardness. Typically an “as quenched
hardness” of about 62 Rc is the minimum you want for a good knife. So basically any steel 0.5% or carbon or more for
a simple low-alloy steel. If the steel has a good amount of chromium (or other alloy that increases hardenability) and
0.5% carbon or more then expect an even higher as quenched hardness than what the chart is showing.

The chart is from “Metallurgy of Steel for Bladesmiths & Others who Heat Treat and Forge Steel”, 2005, Verhoeven
BEGINNER STEELS

1080 or 1084 – best beginner blade quality steel for bladesmithing. Easy to move/forge and hardens almost entirely in
130F canola oil whereas 1075 or 1095 needs a slightly faster quench like water or Parks50.

5160 – because of the extreme impact toughness property of this steel it’s forgivable in a fast to medium quench oil
(medium speed quench oil is preferred). Not as easy to forge (harder to move) and does not laminate easily. This is
why 5160 would be a second choice.

1075, 1095, O1 – Slightly harder to HT than the two choices above but not by much. 1075 and 1095 needs a few
minutes of soak time at critical during hardening (austenitizing), O1 needs 10-30 minutes. Maintaining even
temperature for 10-30 minutes in a forge makes O1 the least favorite for a beginner that does not have a temperature
controlled oven.

DEFINITIONS

Cementite - another word for iron carbide – 6.67% carbon and 93.3% iron -- harder than martensite. You want this
finely distributed throughout the steel otherwise your steel is too brittle usually done with the process of
normalization followed by grain reduction cycles.

Ferrite - basically the carbon poor iron crystals, soft stuff

Pearlite - the annealed state of steel, soft stuff, consisting of layers of ferrite when <0.8% carbon or cementite when
>0.8% carbon or neither when =0.8% carbon.

Martensite - the steel structure that we hope to achieve after a successful heat treat.

Bainite - formed when the quench rate is too slow to form martensite but too fast to form ferrite and pearlite. Bainite
is a bit softer than martensite on the other hand tougher. Great for swords, but martensite is more desirable for
knives.

Austenite - it's a structure of steel when heated to above 1335F (for plain carbon steels about 0.8% carbon) or higher
and becomes 'face centered cubic' (different alloy steels have different and usually higher austenitizing temperatures).
Yeah it's soft or malleable, it’s what we hammer. Austenite is the starting point and based on the cooling rate we can
get the other forms I listed above.

Retained austenite - this is austenite that did not convert to martensite or bainite during the quench. LN2 helps
convert retained austenite to martensite (and other structures), and stainless steel tends to have more retained
austenite issues because of the high alloy content. This is why HT stainless it trickier and why LN2 is preferred on
stainless or high alloy tool steels.

Hypereutectoid steel – any steel with more than 0.8% carbon

Eutectoid steel – any steel with around 0.8% carbon

Hypoeutectoid steel – any steel with less than 0.8% carbon

Curie point (non-magnetic) - is 1414F for iron, 1350F for 1060 steel (Handbook of Induction Heating, Second Edition)

Critical temperature - is when the carbides start to dissolve and go into solution, and varies from steel to steel.

Austenitizing temperature (slightly above critical temp or hardening temp) - is defined as the temperature which the
steel structure called austenite is stable. It is slightly higher than critical and it's when the steel is fully in an austenite
state (when body centered cubic converts to all face centered cubic).