Smithing Question


Binalith

Binalith

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I try not to do this and I hope this is not too off topic, but I'm having a hell of a time coming up with a relevant google topic.
anyone know how to tell if you overheated steel? I'm annealing a nicholson file and it came out with some pretty wild patterns. I feel like I may have burned it but I'm not sure. thanks
 
Rainbow = not good, lmbo.

Usually happens when you superheat it and then let it cool too fast/unevenly...

PMZ
 
Or the temperature was low, and uneven for a decent ammount of time. Hard to say. I'd immagine that it's fine. Have a picture? How did you anneal it?
 
IMAG0177.jpg

IMAG0179.jpg

I just sanded it down...looks like steel still. but that patterning worries me
thanks for looking guys
 
How does it hold up to another file? Is it hard or files soft? Usually overheated steel, if hot enough will throw sparks and is crumbly. I wonder if there could have been something in the teeth that caused it to do this. How red would you say it got before you buried it in ash or whatever?
 
That looks like a chemical reaction not a temperature related one. I imagine the file had oil or something else that reacted with the high heat, hence the different colors. File/sand the surface off and I bet it disappears.

Good luck!
 
The way I had it explained to me when I learned to smith blades was that you can tell that you've overheated the steel when it starts to sparkle; that's the carbon burning. I did it once when forge welding a laminate blade; it looks a bit like one of those fourth of july sparklers, with white sparks shooting from the steel. If you didn't see this, the steel is probably not ruined.
 
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Yeah I agree with the oil comment, it's likely some chemical or such embedded in the teeth.

I've had similar effects and file knives turned out just fine...
PMZ
 
Chris said:
The way I had it explained to me when I learned to smith blades was that you can tell that you've overheated the steel when it starts to sparkle; that's the carbon burning. I did it once when forge welding a laminate blade; it looks a bit like one of those fourth of july sparklers, with white sparks shooting from the steel. If you didn't see this, the steel is probably not ruined.
Click to expand...

he nailed it as long as your not throwning white hot sparks you should be good
 
Agreed, I've had files come out of the annealing process looking just like that, no problem with the steel. FYI, my annealing method is to bury the file in the coals under a wood fire and let the fire burn for a couple of hours, then let the file cool overnight still buried in the coals/ashes. In my experience this has always produced very nicely annealed metal.
 
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