Thread: How thin is too thin???

Originally Posted by Tim Zowada

Jeff, ... That will vary depending on soak time.

And atmosphere. This is only a fine point that will likely not apply for guys doing simple stuff in simple shops. Some ovens have a neutral gas (argon, nitrogen, essentially no oxygen) controlled environments. That's expensive, for most of us doing blades, we get good enough compensating by leaving a little skin on the blade without having to add in all that extra equipment and costs. Like Tim and me, it's something we decided to do because we wanted to play with it, or it does make a difference in what we decide we want our blades to be like. Now a big industrial outfit...the stuff is just a tax deduction and worth doing for that, or because some consultant said so.

Beginners and the insanely cheap (like me) should avoid TAD.

One other thing to consider regarding decarburization...try to avoid high temperatures during the heats/forging cycles. As Tim indicates correctly, the longer the blade spends at a higher temperature the more carbon can be lost from the surface of the blade. When you heat treat, you only really need a temperature just above the critical temperature of the steel you are working. You don't need crazy hot. And, you only want to spend the minimum necessary time for that steel at that temperature if you can. Just enough is all you need.

The main problem is that most fires are unregulated or difficult to control for temperature. Those two things are the primary reasons for wanting a salt pot or oven setup - temperature control. It can be done with gas forges too, but you still have the problem of a more aggressive atmosphere to compensate for oven or forge setup.