Wow, leave for a little while and come back to the set of the family feud
Thought we were having a decent discussion about Case hardening…so what happened?
Bottom line is that Case Hardening is really not voodoo, hasn’t been for a bunch of years.
Back when I first started CCH, those who knew how to do it…wouldn’t talk about it; and those who thought they knew…would tell you a bunch of crap.
That’s about when I started building my “Library”. I bought every period (1890-1920) book on case hardening/heat treatment of steel that I could find. I’ve got over a dozen books on the subject. Back then case hardening was a well understood process. Lots of research/data into depth of case correlation with carburizing temp /time /materials.
When carbon rich materials (in our case Wood/Bone charcoal) are heated, they begin to off gas carbon in the form of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. When steel is heated, it will absorb this carbon. Steel will begin to absorb carbon well below its critical temps, and can be hardened when quenched below its critical temp.
To me, the true “mystery/voodoo” is in the colors, Winchester v. Colt, Marlin, L.C.Smith, Parker, etc
V/r
Mike
