During the Bemidji Blacksmithing Conference this spring, blacksmith Doug Hendrickson demonstrated the making of a chisel using new departure alloy steel; one that requires no tempering. Doug formed it, heated it up to a salmon color, threw it into a bucket of water and then began using it to split some steel stock for a project. As you can imagine, there was quite a bit of discussion about this easy to use steel! As several people asked for more information about it, I mentioned that I had a 4 page brochure someplace and then Doug suggested that we have it published in the Metals. Well, here it comes.

Knowing how expensive each page is to print in our newsletter, I contacted John J. Borkes III, the general manager of Atlantic Steel Corp. to ask if they could shorten the spec sheet a bit. John was very pleasant to talk to and did as I asked.

I do need to add the forging and hardening instructions:

To Forge: Heat slowly and uniformly to temperature of about 1825 degrees F. to 1975 degrees F. lemon to yellow) and forge.

To Harden: Reheat the cutting edge about 1" back between 1650 degrees F. to 1950 degrees F. (salmon to lemon color) depending on hardness required. Quench in clean cold water. DO NOT DRAW TEMPER.

As a die steel, Atlantic 33 can be flame hardened at 1540 degrees F. followed by a continuous water spray quench directly behind the flame, resulting Rockwell C. 58-62. The flame should travel from 3" to 7" per minute at a height of about 3/16" over the steel. The thinner the section, the faster should be the rate of travel of the flame. A forced air quench using the same temperature gives about 63-64 Rc. A still air quench using the same temperature gives about 48-52 Rc. By carburizing and flame hardening, a Rockwell hardness from between 63-68 Rc is obtained (carburizing and flame hardening data supplied upon request).