How to Harden Steel

Watch Ryder

Now steel plating has good resistance to certain calibres of ammo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv3o7peBIuQ

However unless you use extremely thick and heavy pieces, larger, more powerful calibres will unfortunately breach the armour.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kj35vyebPn4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfb1WOLy3Z8

One method to counteract this is to use our innovation to harden the atomic structure of armour. Thereby strengthening the 'lattice' matrix of it etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FwmygmJMuM

With thick armour plate The result will be true bulletproofing of a structure, components or even a vehicle.

Gear You'll need


Access to a torch metal cutter.
Charcoal.
Engine crane.
Swimming pool
Bones (not essential) from a grocery store.
A leaf blower.
Thick metal plates between half an inch and an inch.
Motor Oil (not essential).


Dig a pit in the gound


The steel plate needs to be up to an inch thick. If of a lesser thickness you can double-skin half-inch plate with trauma material in the middle (like armoured vehicles do)


Gun experts may scoff that an inch thick steel plate can resist penetration by a large caliber high velocity round such as this but ordinary steel is like butter compared to heat treated steel. I will tell you how to heat treat and anneal your own steel.


Take that huge plate cut it up into four sections.


Now drill 1/2 holes around the perimeter.


Make a large pit in the ground about 5 feet around, then a smaller hole to the side when the pit is 5 feet deep connect the 4 inch hole made tot he side to the pit at the bottom. This small hole will be your air hose for the forced air.


Crush up the bones.


Soak bones in motor oil (if you so choose).


Now take a towel put the crushed bones in the middle of the towel.


You want the layers as:


Towel bones.
Steel plate.
Towel bones.


Put one foot deep of charcoal in pit stick the towel-bones in amongst it so that you have one towel per foot inch.


Then fill the rest up over it with charcoal and attach the leaf blower to the small hole.
You must have forced air or you will not get right temperature. Light charcoal wait until it turns white turn on leaf blower.


Heat for hours and hours.


You will have to ensure you don't overdo it, as you could potentially exceed the temperature bracket.

The colour change is key, once it goes to cherry red colour you are at the optimum temperature level for the next step.

If it starts getting too much hotter than cherry red be careful, you will start approaching the melting point of steel.


Once at cherry red colour use the engine crane to lift steel plates out the charcoal pit. (I'd of preslung the steel with wires / shackles prior to this).


Now dunk in a large and suitable water container.
Make sure you do this smoothly, not in a jerking or uneven fashion. You've hardened your metal BUT it's so hardened that it is brittle. You need to work on it again (or risk it shattering)


After the initial quench lift out the steel from the water container.


Now give it a second reheat to a blueish colour (softening it somewhat and giving it the shock absorbing, flexing-qualities).
Now remove and quench again!


This will now set the hardening process and your metal is hardened against attack!


Afix the steel plates to your humble bug out location, BOV, delicate areas etc.


NBBones have been used for thousands of years to harden steel.


This is because bones contain phosphorus and nitrogen which are both important to the process.


You don't HAVE to use bones (animal types usually), but they allow an extra level of 'increased' hardening.
In one of the videos I've linked in above they show the process without bones (just heat and quench).


Further notesNow the 1st world militaries of the world use HMG armour with multiple layers and 'fillings' etc. This is more for heavy explosive resistance and military penetrators etc.


The method I've just written is a bit more rough and ready, but will suffice for ANYTHING lower than autocannon-grade munitions.


.50 BMG will struggle to penetrate unless repeated hits are sustained (in my estimations).


In the future I may make a small sample piece and test it out!


Hardened Half-inch armour is a good compromise between strength and price/weight trade-off.

Deise Musashi

I'm expecting to see a build-along of your up armoured "technical" or a Killdozer any day now!

mawk

If that's tldnr;

Heat it till a magnet won't stick to it, then quench it in used motor oil.

Slightly more realistic home method..

juice1304

It depends on the plate you are using some will oil harden, some are air quenched and some water. Different steel requires different hardening and tempering the tempering being the most important if you have a piece of really hard steel and it is brittle it will shatter when a bullet hits it it. I would rather buy some hardened steel. if you are using it for shooting if it is'nt hard enough it will have pits and divot's in it from shooting which will make the bullet ricochet so i would rather trust a peice of ar550.