Look up glassmakers carbon...great stuff
Quote from: antithesis on May 19, 2021, 11:30:28 PMQuote from: antithesis on May 19, 2021, 11:28:12 PMQuote from: JuryRigger on May 19, 2021, 11:22:02 PMDidn't mean to suggest you pack harden; was trying to remember whether the aquarium charcoal reference that I remembered was to an instant case compound; or for the pack method (which only a very lucky sort of fella with a furnace could likely do)....Will be watching to see how things go for you; am following along to learn more myself...Jesse I'm looking for bone char. There are alot of items made from coconut shells but I don't know if that would be appropriate or notAnd if anyone wants, I see someone in Croatia supposedly selling original kasenite FWIW but I already got a ton of ferrocyanide so I'm going homemade on this oneOk I got food grade hardwood charcoal powder I'll make a fine mix in the blender and if it does the job well I'd be happy to send some out for additional opinion. *(&^ if it turns out good maybe I'll start bulk batching and start selling some desperately needed product that kasenite left a wide open market for.
Quote from: antithesis on May 19, 2021, 11:28:12 PMQuote from: JuryRigger on May 19, 2021, 11:22:02 PMDidn't mean to suggest you pack harden; was trying to remember whether the aquarium charcoal reference that I remembered was to an instant case compound; or for the pack method (which only a very lucky sort of fella with a furnace could likely do)....Will be watching to see how things go for you; am following along to learn more myself...Jesse I'm looking for bone char. There are alot of items made from coconut shells but I don't know if that would be appropriate or notAnd if anyone wants, I see someone in Croatia supposedly selling original kasenite FWIW but I already got a ton of ferrocyanide so I'm going homemade on this one
Quote from: JuryRigger on May 19, 2021, 11:22:02 PMDidn't mean to suggest you pack harden; was trying to remember whether the aquarium charcoal reference that I remembered was to an instant case compound; or for the pack method (which only a very lucky sort of fella with a furnace could likely do)....Will be watching to see how things go for you; am following along to learn more myself...Jesse I'm looking for bone char. There are alot of items made from coconut shells but I don't know if that would be appropriate or not
Didn't mean to suggest you pack harden; was trying to remember whether the aquarium charcoal reference that I remembered was to an instant case compound; or for the pack method (which only a very lucky sort of fella with a furnace could likely do)....Will be watching to see how things go for you; am following along to learn more myself...Jesse
Quote from: antithesis on May 19, 2021, 11:42:35 PMQuote from: antithesis on May 19, 2021, 11:30:28 PMQuote from: antithesis on May 19, 2021, 11:28:12 PMQuote from: JuryRigger on May 19, 2021, 11:22:02 PMDidn't mean to suggest you pack harden; was trying to remember whether the aquarium charcoal reference that I remembered was to an instant case compound; or for the pack method (which only a very lucky sort of fella with a furnace could likely do)....Will be watching to see how things go for you; am following along to learn more myself...Jesse I'm looking for bone char. There are alot of items made from coconut shells but I don't know if that would be appropriate or notAnd if anyone wants, I see someone in Croatia supposedly selling original kasenite FWIW but I already got a ton of ferrocyanide so I'm going homemade on this oneOk I got food grade hardwood charcoal powder I'll make a fine mix in the blender and if it does the job well I'd be happy to send some out for additional opinion. *(&^ if it turns out good maybe I'll start bulk batching and start selling some desperately needed product that kasenite left a wide open market for. Be careful mixing fine charcoal and iron powders together. They are the active ingredients used to create spontaneous combustion in dry chemical hand, foot, and body warmers.
I'm actually facing the same problem, only it's Evanix (of which Kral seems to be a copy of) sear that has worn out - or make it two as both my Blizzard and Sniper are now suffering from worn sears. I ordered some kasenit from Croatia, I hope that will fix it.
Ok gents, your really overthinking all of this. You don’t have to try it on your part. Grab a piece of mild steel, heat cherry red (your not going to hurt the temper because it has none), dip it in pure pot ferro, continue heating for about 30 seconds (you won’t be able to judge color because of the pot ferro, you’ll see what I mean), quench in water, check with a file. Practice on some other pieces until confident. Kasenit was meant to be a super easy process for the home builder/farmer/tinkerer/whatever. The beauty of it is its ease of use. The only oddball item here is that you don’t know what metal your part is made from. If it won’t work with pot ferro, it probably won’t pack/case harden. Fwiw, the Croatian ‘Kasenit’ looks like my homemade stuff and not like my actual Kasenit brand stuff. Dave
Yes...pot ferro alone has worked for me. and if you are wanting to add charcoal, just get HARDWOOD charcoal and mortar/pestal the two (pf and charcoal) together. Dave
Quote from: rkr on May 24, 2021, 02:24:59 AMI'm actually facing the same problem, only it's Evanix (of which Kral seems to be a copy of) sear that has worn out - or make it two as both my Blizzard and Sniper are now suffering from worn sears. I ordered some kasenit from Croatia, I hope that will fix it.Ya know this was going to be a proactive measure on my part but you got me a bit more concerned now that I know that connection exists .
OK let's get away from the $1.98 homemade case hardening job. If you are successful you should be aware that the hardened "skin" you will wind up with will only be a few ten thousandths of an inch thick. Even under near ideal conditions with a cyanide pot and aeriated water quench likely your best efforts will be around .001 to .0015 deep per side. But hear me out. First of all Why would you want to case harden the working portion of a sear in the first place? It's unlikely that the steel used is low carbon and if it is it doesn't say too much about the quality of materials or engineering. Next I'd think you would rather use a good tool steel and that the part has been properly heat treated either in it's entirety or just the working "wear area/areas " of the sear. #O1 tool steel would be an acceptable choice I'd think. Then you harden it and as if not even more important you lightly "temper" the hardened area if not the entire part. Otherwise it may particularly the edges and corners, be too hard and therefore brittle and chip or flake. Now there are a very few tool steels that are both hard and strong and can take this task without further heat treatment as they come right off the Mill pretty hard anyway. Inconel 718 might work out. Any way chances are the sears are tool steel or some type of hardenable high carbon steel. Any other thoughts on this matter? Do you think the Kasenit will do a better hardening job the second time around. Would it be possible to try a spark test just to determine if the material is high or low carbon. Is there any way to find out what materials the stock material is?
Making a new sear takes quite a long time if you don't have a milling machine. I'll try case hardening first, if it doesn't work then it's time to start grinding a new sear from proper material.
Quote from: Spin on May 25, 2021, 02:33:45 AM OK let's get away from the $1.98 homemade case hardening job. If you are successful you should be aware that the hardened "skin" you will wind up with will only be a few ten thousandths of an inch thick. Even under near ideal conditions with a cyanide pot and aeriated water quench likely your best efforts will be around .001 to .0015 deep per side. But hear me out. First of all Why would you want to case harden the working portion of a sear in the first place? It's unlikely that the steel used is low carbon and if it is it doesn't say too much about the quality of materials or engineering. Next I'd think you would rather use a good tool steel and that the part has been properly heat treated either in it's entirety or just the working "wear area/areas " of the sear. #O1 tool steel would be an acceptable choice I'd think. Then you harden it and as if not even more important you lightly "temper" the hardened area if not the entire part. Otherwise it may particularly the edges and corners, be too hard and therefore brittle and chip or flake. Now there are a very few tool steels that are both hard and strong and can take this task without further heat treatment as they come right off the Mill pretty hard anyway. Inconel 718 might work out. Any way chances are the sears are tool steel or some type of hardenable high carbon steel. Any other thoughts on this matter? Do you think the Kasenit will do a better hardening job the second time around. Would it be possible to try a spark test just to determine if the material is high or low carbon. Is there any way to find out what materials the stock material is?I believe the topic of the thread was about case hardening compound. Had it been about ‘make a better part’, my replies would have been totally different. If the hardening compound would not have served me well over the last 20 years, I would have said so. I am familiar with different steels/properties, case hardening, color case hardening and compound hardening. I do not have tens of thousands of dollars in equipment and have still been successful. And yes, a spark test can be done. Btw, what is your experience with compound hardening?Dave