Annealing 1095/15N20

[Joshua States]

I did a site search on Google foor this topic and only found one discussion that didn't yield much, so I'm asking again.

I recently started using 1095 in my Damascus and I have this multi-bar pattern all welded up and ready to accordion cut.
I normalized 3X and set the bar to anneal. The bar measures 1-1/2" x 7/8" x 8"
Into the Paragon:
Ramp up to 1450 @ 250 degrees per hour, hold for 1.5 hours
Ramp down to 1200 @ 100 degrees per hour hold for 1 hour
Turn off oven.

This would not cut on the bandsaw (at least not very easily, it killed two blades before cutting 6 lines each about 3/4" long)
A quick call to Hancock, and we decided to try it again.
So, I put it back in to the paragon.
Ramp up to 1350 @ 200 degrees per hour, hold for 2 hours
Ramp down to 1250 @ 100 degrees per hour, hold for 2 hours
Shut the oven off.

This is even harder than the first one. It is eating bandsaw blades before making a single cut.
Any ideas or suggestions?

Here is the bar:

 

[Matthew Parkinson]

low temp anneal soak at 1200 or so for 15-20 min should be good to go. if you got a lot of carbide formation harden it first then soak at 1200.

MP

[Joshua States]

Thanks again Matthew.

[stuart davenport]

Matthew said it. Quench to form martensite, then place in oven at 1200f for an hour or so. This will spheroidize the cementite.

[Joshua States]

Actually, that didn't work so well. I did that and tried to cut it again last night. It was basically the same as it was the first time around. I got some other advice to re-normalize and do an industrial anneal (a much slower process). That went into effect late last night and was still going when I left for work this morning. I'll know more when I get home tonight.

[Jerrod Miller]

Personally, I would try going hotter. 1600F for 30 minutes and oven off. Since you have the controls for it, I'd do a half hour soak at 1400F just to ensure it all gets up to temp a little more uniformly. I wouldn't even worry about ramp speeds too much if doing that soak. This will grow grains, but you can refine those again after you have done your cutting. Obviously this is just something to try if your current cycle doesn't do the trick.

[Joshua States]

Well, I finally got this cut and cleaned up.

[Dave Stephens]

I use this mixture all the time. I don't know jack about the metallurgy (pearlite, martensite, kryptonite, etc.), but before I had a kiln I'd just triple normalize, then bring up to dull red and turn off the forge, leaving the bar in the forge to cool overnight. I do the same thing with the kiln now, take it up to 1550F, hold for about 10 minutes, then just turn off the kiln and let it cool down overnight.

 

I'm probably doing something incorrectly, but this has always made billets soft enough to cut for me.

[Joshua States]

Thanks Dave. I did that with the next bar and it seems to work just fine.