Paul Carter Posted August 24, 2020 Share Posted August 24, 2020 So I made this hammer head out of a block of 1045. I was wondering what I should heat treat this at and what to temper it at for a hammer. I'm guessing I want my final hardness between 45 and 50? Is that correct? Thank you for any help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerrod Miller Posted August 24, 2020 Share Posted August 24, 2020 The book says heat to 1555 F and quench in water or brine. Should get you at least near 55 HRC. From there an hour at 700 will likely put you at about 400 HBW, which is about 43 HRC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Carter Posted August 25, 2020 Author Share Posted August 25, 2020 Thank you Jerrod! I will give that a try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerhard Gerber Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 Well I tried, but my memory has failed me...too many videos. There's a video of some smith visiting another smith (IIRC a previous FiF contestant) who specializes in hammers, and they go into a lot of detail. What I do remember is water quench with a lot and very quick agitation to get through the steam jacket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerrod Miller Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 8 hours ago, Gerhard Gerber said: What I do remember is water quench with a lot and very quick agitation to get through the steam jacket. The general rule of thumb is 200 feet per minute for water speed to disrupt the vapor jacket, but I have seen reports that as little as 80 feet per minute is pretty much just as effective. 200 FPM is pretty aggressive, 80 is still a bit, but not too bad. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Carter Posted August 26, 2020 Author Share Posted August 26, 2020 Gerhard and Jerrod. Thanks for that tidbit. I normalized it last night and going for the heat treat tonight. I will be sure to agitate it very well. My wife tells me I'm good at agitating! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Carter Posted August 28, 2020 Author Share Posted August 28, 2020 Well I heat treated it the other day but made a mistake. I took it to 1555° held until whole piece got orange, then quenched in water and agitated the crap out of it. The straight peen end got hard, the hammer end did not. I think my mistake was grabbing the hammer end with tongs and quenching. Second heat treat, I grabbed it by the handle hole and quenched the hammer end and the peen end at the same time. The peen came out between 55 and 60, and the hammer end came out between 50 and 55. After a 700° temper, both ends are between 40 and 45. Thanks again guys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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