Daniel Cauble

Unfortunately I think this is graphite and I am now poised to remelt. In the future when I grind into these after the melt, I will check for porosity before I bake. Something is causing porosity in the last several melts. I kill with Al, so I'm at a loss. Perhaps I'm killing the ingot too early and it's still reacting going on.

Finally repaired my kiln and upgraded to an aftermarket controller to take temps to exactly where I want them instead of relying on the analog controller. Baked at 1840F for 10 hours. Cementite appears to be in GB as GBC (Grain Boundary Cementite). It was coated with an anti-scale clay. Still leaning towards the 1.5% C range. Little pockets, albeit towards the outside of the puck seemed to look like they were filled with graphite, but I dont think i induced that sort of behavior. We will see.

::NECRO:: These steel combinations work just fine together. Your problem is simply weak welds. Try dry welding.

I'm revising carbon prediction to 1.5-1.6. The grain boundary cementite is thick, but looks less dense than I'm used to seeing once things cross over into 1.6% territory. Of course things will change when I move the concentrations of cementite around, so they will thicken, and I know this based on the thick pockets of dendrites.

Ok let's do this again. I had lost weight before from the mishap so I added a pound or so of W2. Calculating the estimated carbon of the puck and the new steel addition, the carbon was estimated to lower to a more workable 1.7ish. The new puck is 5 pounds. The surface I dendritic in places and the dirty ferric etch shows grain boundary cementite in most areas with pockets of heavier dendrites. I'm estimating carbon at 1.6-1.7% currently. It may change when I mix up some Nital again.

Totally gutted on this puck. My electric kiln I use for REM had something go haywire, and the crucible I reseal my pucks in to bake bled some and as it touched the soft firebrick, it undermined the crucibles plinth inside and the cruciblr tilted and overheated to the point of remelting and pouring out into the kiln. Lol. Needless to say I lost half a pound of steel, need to remelt it. I'm going to add a half pound of W2 to bring the carbon down a tic, and buy new elements for the kiln. Plan to remelt this Friday.

Wrong guy, I mispoke. I contacted that particular archaeologist because I noticed a very high similarity in materials. I then found out he has been following my work already for awhile, so that was reassuring. I was approached by a metallographer to take micros of one of my pucks awhile back. Which reminds me that I need to send that.

I mean it may vary a little bit, but I think I'm in like...10 of the past 12 melts using hearth steel only and yielding between 1.3 and 2%. Once I may have hit 1.3, but the rest have fallen in this 1.6% average area. Then in the recent past I was approached by an archaologist that specializes in ancient metals. The structures I was finding in my steel and showing in micrographs were present in the exact same way as the UHC and cast steel chunks they were finding in Roman slag pits. Interestingly, of the chunks that were in the steel range, their carbon content was also in this 1.6%

I can make a chunk or hearth steel and break it up all by itself and add to a crucible, and plop out a puck of ~1.6% crucible steel at will at this point.

People use dirty wrought and cast iron as their ingredients. The ancients used bloomery. Oroshigane is cleaner than both in regards to slag. It can also be made to have lower amounts of P than the other two. It's been my main feed material for the past 12 crucible runs.

Nope, blown propane for crucible. Oroshigane or hearth steel has been one of the things that keeps me coming back. The range of product I can produce in a relatively simple furnace is invaluable to me. As far as I know, I've been the only one that sees the ease of using oroshigane as the feed material in crucible steel. To me it's a no brainer. I'm glad to read you are using it the same way. Little to no slag to deal with in the melt vs using bloomery and something I can make in my backyard in an hour.

OKAY. Like puck number 12 or 13 on the books. Melting went great. Carbon calculation based on my experiences with hearth steel seems to be yet again spot on. The top of the puck seems to be around 1.5% C with very thick GBC and below that are sheets of dendrites that i would suspect are in thr 1.7-1.8% range. After some heat treatment carbon should even out across the board. I'll know more after and look at with the scope but I would bet it's probably going to fall around 1.7ish. Pics are crappy ferric etch and cellphone. Have to prepare more nital.

Just looking at the crucible in the 2nd pic I would say it didnt get nearly hot enough. Good job. If it were easy everyone would do it

After that fail I set it aside and did some of my oroshigane japanese blade work. Well i answered a few questions there, ironed out a few questions only gleaned from doing it...and am back go crucible again. I'm avoiding Mn. No Mn addition except for the W2 I am spiking the oroshigane with to add Vanadium which will give detectable Mn in a beneficial range rather than for any depth of hardening. I made a pulverizer to break up my oroshigane. My oroshigane or hearth steel is made a little differently than commonly seen. My way coarsens the grain structure at creation thu

I havent posted my previous puck's forgings, but it was pretty massive and forged out real nicely but found a void, so it ceased. It was an experiment with Manganese, but decided I'm not going to use Mn any more as it hurts the patterning.