Hey folks, I ground out a blade last weekend and when it came out of the quench it had pits in a few places, some rather deep. The steel was HR1095 from Admiral, 1/8 x 1 1/2, I put it in 1525 deg oven, which goes down to about 1460, wait to get back up to 1525 then soak for 6 min, quenched in 125 deg ATF. I went to 1525 because 1500 wasn't getting hard. Any ideas on the pitting?

When I first started making 38 years ago I used 01 in an oven and got pitting. I went to Pacific Heat treat in the Bay Area and was told that it was because of Air in the oven caused moisture and that was why it pitted.
The guy who was doing my heat treat put a Nitrogen purge in his oven and never had the problem again.
Now I use SS and do my own HT and wrap is foil plus put a scrap of wood in the package and have never had a problem with scale or pits

I've done 15-20 blades with 440-C, wrapped in SS foil, no paper or wood, and they come out great.

If you join us at www.bladeforums.com there are many makers who will help you. First we'd ask you details about your set-up.First what do you mean by pits ? How many and how wide and deep ?

I just filled out the registration for bladeforums.com

Dan,
When you wrap in foil you are eleminating almost all the oxygen, oxygen= moister

I use Turturo(I think that is how it is spelled) I dip the blade, let it dry and dip it again. No problems with pitting)