Hack saw hardening

[Shadowx]

I just shaped the general shape of my new pick from a hacksaw blade and was wondering if I need to heat and quench the blade to make it black and hard or not. Also how long should the tang and tip beis 1.5 inches good or shouldit be longer? Thank you.

[Chrispy]

There's a lot of info on this topic if you search for it. I wouldn't advise on heating your picks to the point where they are hard and black. The whole point of quenching is so they don't get too hot and ruin the temper.

[digital_blue]

As Chrispy mentioned, if you are quenching often while grinding, there is no need to heat treat the metal. The length of the business end of the pick should be at least as long (through actually a bit longer) as the distance from teh tip to shoulder on the key. If you add about 20% to that length you should be in good shape.

If you were to see a need to heat treat the metal, you would be aiming for a light straw colour then quench. When you heat the metal it doesn't really turn black (aside from smoke). In simple terms it will pass from blue, through straw, to cherry red. If you let it get cherry red you have made it too hot and the pick will be brittle. If you do this accidently you can let it air cool, then heat again to straw colour and quench.

Hope this helps.

Happy pickmaking!

db

[Shrub]

If you have got it too hot you need to heat to cherry red first and quench and then do the heat to straw bit, this gives an even hardness over the pick and will stop any hard bits which result in breakages, the straw heating then aneals the pick to a better suited temper,

If your blade has got black you need to do the process above,

When i make picks, i quench so often with so much coolant that i can make a pick that still is painted the colour of the hacksaw blade (in other words i dont even melt the paint off) so there shouldnt realy be any need to be re-hardening hacksaw blades at all,

They will normally be ok as long as you dont get them too hot to touch as they are stress releived to an extent and a little heat will not harm them as heat is generated when sawing anyway.

[Shadowx]

Thank you you have confirmed what AI thought but I wasn't sure because I have seen many black picks and thought it may have been from heat treating.

[Chrispy]

[Shrub]

Forget the colour of home made picks for a min,

Any black looking commercial picks will be from hardening the material as they stamp out hundreds a min and need the dies to last so use a softer material or anealed material and then re harden them, another reason can be a specific blacking process to make them a uniform black colour,

Unless you know a particular home made pick has been properly and perfectly made i would not take much notice of the finish on them.

[JoshMan92]

what do u use to quench them

[JoshMan92]

and when do u quench them

[helix]

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[Santos718]

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Ummm...wow..you think he got the point?

[Chrispy]

what do u use to quench them

and

when you you quench them?

helix...

The amount of effort it took you to do the "Multi-Search-Icon-Extravaganza" post, you could have said....

Water, every 5 seconds (or when starting to hurt fingers).

See? Much easier.

[helix]

Use water to quench the steel, dude and do it very often, like
the second that it starts to get a little warm to touch
(usually one or two seconds)...... AWWWW!! that's nowhere near
as fun!

Sorry dude, I just got a new flame fower and needed to have a play
with it. Didn't mean to torch you, man. You were just there when
I decided to have a play.

Ok, I won't be nasty to anymore new guys

YOU ARE NEW, RIGHT??

hehe

[Chrispy]

Ok, I won't be nasty to anymore new guys

I'd like to believe you helix..... I really would....

[helix]

awww, WHAAAAAAAAT?

I am one of the tolerent ones