Best heat treatment for mild steel hardest result

[Thenymphadora]

what is the best heat treatment for mild steel which will produce hardest result when tested in laboratory

 

[jedishrfu]

Look up how samurai sword blades are made. In general to increase the hardness of the blade edge, the blade is heated to a high temp and quenched in water causing a fast cooling. To make the sword flexible too, the back of the blade is coated with clay to diminish the quenching cooldown making the back flexible while the blade edge is hardened.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/samurai/swor-nf.html

 

[pantaz]

what is the best heat treatment for mild steel which will produce hardest result when tested in laboratory

Highly dependent on the particular steel's chemistry. Common "mild" steel such as 1018, has too little carbon for through-hardening, although it can probably be case-hardened.

 

[OCR]

With out adding some carbon, mild steel, or "plain-carbon steel" does not have the properties that lend it capable of true heat treatment.

http://www.efunda.com/materials/alloys/carbon_steels/low_carbon.cfm

http://www.efunda.com/processes/heat_treat/hardening/diffusion.cfm

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=55615

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mild_steel#Mild_steel

OCR

PS: Yeah, pantaz is right... he posted a bit before I did.

 

[Thenymphadora]

my lecturer just said that he need us to get as high as possible result for brinell hardness test.
so can i achieve by doing this:
-heat the sample given to us until it turn medium red
-then quench it by using..what medium is the best? is it water?

do i need to do tempering as well if i want the highest result in brinell test?

 

[pantaz]

http://www.google.com/search?q="case+hardening"