Case Harden Your Steel At Home
Most steel is relatively soft and easily scratched so case hardening is a method of toughening up the outer surfaces to help prevent damage.
Whilst this method of hardening should be done by professionals for large items, it is possible to carry out the procedure at home with the right care and planning. In order to do it yourself the only slightly problematic part is that you will need a sourceof heat strong enough to get the steel object red hot. Something like a welding rod and the correct gases should do the trick.
You should have a container just a little bigger than the objects you want to case harden and into that place a couple of inches of crushed barbecue charcoal bricks. On a fire proof surface the object should be heated till it is red hot and then removed with tongs and placed carefully into the container on top of the charcoal. More crushed charcoal is then thrown over the object to completely cover it and the lid of the container put on top.
Obviously all safety precautions should be used including the wearing of fire proof gloves and safety goggles as the charcoal is liable to flame when the object is placed on the charcoal.
Just leave the container for an hour and the infusion of carbon process will have finished as the whole thing gets cooler. The last part of the process is to remove the object and drop it into a container of room temperature water. It is important that the water is at this temperature as very cold water actually produces a completely different finished product.
This completes the whole procedure of case hardening but if you want to make it a deeper hardened surface you can reheat the object until it is red hot and place it again in a container of room temperature water.
Doing it yourself is fine for small objects and you feel competent enough but for a fully professional service you should get in touch with the experts at http://www.heat-treat.co.uk/.
