Heat Treating Knives, Blades etc

Recently forged 6 blades for hoof knives using 1/8"x3/4" A2. This is the third series of these blades over approx 5 yrs. The heat treat went well on 4 of the 6 blades. I don't think I did anything different from the past. On the other 2 blades the tangs are way to hard to drill for the pins. Any hope of spot annealing the tangs? Will this thin stock take a do over and perform well? Write it off as "the gods were angry"?

I've gotten a few plow edges in as a freebie to see if I can make knives with it. I can sharpen it straight out of the field sharp enough to shave arm hair. I've already ground a blade. (I know blackmsithing grinding a knife is sacrilige, I just didn't wanna run the risk of trying to forge something that thin into something thinner). I'm 95% sure they're either John Deere or Case brand. What should I quench and temper them at? OR just cut one into sample peices and oil quench one, water quench one, and let one normalize. Then temper all ar 500 for an hour and see what happens.

Anyone know the technical term for a ht steel returning to its set form after a force is applied? Ie "springiness" - like fixing a blade in a vice, bending it and its ability to return to form without deformation.

I have been reading some and have seen the tempering colors. So if you get to a straw color this means the steel has oxidized and it has reached a certain color. I am trying to get some carving tools (wood) to as about hard as I can and still be workable, but maybe that's not such a good idea either. Its not that critical that I want to send them away and some of the steel I am not sure, what it is exactly but I think its a high carbon steel. so I have a oven and can get the temps fairly close, but I don't have any other facility's for testing other than trial and error. my question is if you soak a piece of steel, after hardening, how accurate are the colors to true…

Hey all I did a search, and didn't find any info on the site answering my question, so my apologies if this question has been answered in the past. I've seen a traditional technique for tempering/drawing colors by placing the spine of a single-edged knife upon a large piece of iron heated in the forge. I have some longer blades forged from 5160 which need to be hardened and tempered, and can't think of any reason why I wouldn't be able to achieve the same results using the burner plate on my kitchen stove top. I'm thinking that it might work better since the burner plate stays hot and doesn't need to be reheated in the forge like a piece of stock would. Another advan…

This past weekend I made my first attempt making a knife using O-1 tool steel. I started out with flat stock and using a Whisper Momma propane forge got it into the shape I wanted. I was not ready to oil quench it quite yet, so I let the blade air cool. After 30-45 minutes, it was cool enough for me to handle and, wanting to see how it looked cleaned up a bit, started to clean it with an angle grinder with a wire brush attachment. I had the tang of the knife in an vise and was applying some pressure when the knife snapped. Before doing anything work to the steel upon finishing, should I have tempered it? Besides breaking it, is there something I should have do…

Hi everyone, I'm a total beginner with regards to heat treating of steel, and am doing my research before attempting to harden my first blade I'm planning to harden a 3mm blade, which is made from a German steel similar to N690. The spec sheet states that the steel should be treated at 1030 °C to 1080 °C for a period of 1 hour per 30mm of thickness. My question is, do I reduce this time by one tenth, given that my blade is only one tenth the thickness for which the treatment time is given, or is there a minimum treatment time for a steel, regardless of the thickness of the material being treated? I will be doing the heating in a digitally controlled electric kiln…

It's my understanding that the clay hardening process used in making a katana is what causes the "warp" of the curved blade. Seeing cheap laser/acid etched hamon on "ninja swords" all my life leads me to ask the question is this possible. I'm not to a point in this craft to attempt forging a sword. I'm simply doing my research.

Hi All, This is my first post on this Forum. I'm from south Africa, and am an absolute beginner as far as heat treating & forging goes - given that my electric kiln is only to be delivered tomorrow Having read up on the subject of heat treating for some time now, I understand the process and metallurgy involved, to some extent, but will only be gaining first-hand experience over the next few weeks... My current concern, is that my first heat treatment project will be to harden a knife that I have just completed. Now, according to many sources on the 'Net, any steel will be degraded if heated in the presence of oxygen, and I have read that one should wrap the…

Well the top line about sums it up, I forged out 2 hawks, out of 2 rail road spikes. I quenched both of them, but it seems to me that neither of them got very hard. I read somewhere that spikes where 1095 carbon or along those lines. I used one old spike and a fairly new one. I quenched in water, not oil. I did a fair bit of grinding to knock of the scale to temper it, it didn't get over 175 degrees in grinding. I put an edge on one just to see the hardness, and it wasn't very hard at all. What'd I do wrong?

I'm interested in making my own blades for woodworking hand planes by removing stock from O1 bar. The largest blade I intend to make is 2 5/8” x 1/8” x 8”, but 3" from the edge is all that needs to be hardened. One of the reasons I’m interested in doing this is to save money. So, I’m trying to figure out the best way to economically heat up to the curie temperature before quenching in oil and annealing in my toaster oven. I’ve ruled out heat treat ovens. Even the homemade jobs look a little pricey. I’ve seen a few coffee/paint/bean can forges that I think usually use mapp torches. I like the way they look. Easy and clean. I would really like to use the propane torch I h…

An excellent demonstration by a couple Internet buddies of mine: http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/topic/47099/Normalization-Grain-Size-Control-Experiment-----normalize

I've been given several nice chunks of D2 that can be sawed and forged into billets. Having no experience doing so, can anyone please give me some suggestions in the heat treating and finish work? I have a heat treat oven capable of accurate temps. What is the best process? Thanks, John

I recently forged a hunting knife from a section of rail car spring. After forging the blank I annealed it and then proceeded to refine the profile and cut in the bevel with a file and sandpaper. When this was done I heated the blade and quenched it in room temp. used veggie oil. After cleaning the knife off I put a steel plate over my forge and tempered the blade on it. I drew the temper to a peacock blue. At one point the color started to run really fast on the edge and point so I place just the first 1/4" of the point and edge into my water quench to slow the colors. When the tempering was complete I placed the knife in a container of wood ash. When it had cooled I pla…

Guys, I'm a little frustrated. I started a knife with some scrap from my anvil project. It sparked carbon, but never really hardened in oil or water. "Ok", I thought, "lesson learned. Unidentified scrap shouldn't be used." So I went to a breaker yard and cheaply acquired a coil spring from a BMW. I understood that the rule of thumb is: coil springs=1095, leaf springs=5160. Both are oil quenching and are good, cheap stock to learn on. (right?) But, as I uncoil the spring and start to work it, gaining basic skill like squaring, upsetting, drawing, shaping; two things are happening with regularity: One is that parts are falling off in the fire. Like big parts. I think it…

i recently bought a 2 ft by 1/4in by 1 in section of t6-4 grade titanium. i want to make knifes out of it i want to know if it is necessary to heat treat it, if so how do you do it right. i will show you pic of it finished. and i assure you i am not trolling i will even post the link to where i bought it. i did the spark and anodize test it came out positive of ti. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ti6-4-TITANIUM-FLAT-BAR-STOCK-1-X-250-/130424374788?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e5de60604

I've made a few knives before using coal/charcoal for the forging and heat treat. After the quenching a new file would skate nicely. Some time ago, the club I belong to had a gas forge build that I got into. I've attempted 2 knives recently in the gas forge. In neither case has a file skated after quenching. On the first one, I kept getting a little hotter and a little hotter until I ended up with about a bazillion pieces and huge grain. The one I just quenched, I tested with a magnet. So I'm wondering why the file doesn't skate the same and the only thing I can come up with is I get more decarb. in the gas forge than working with solid fuels. Thoughts? For the r…

Hello all, This is my first real post, and it starts with a problem. Today I snapped a knife blade in half. A friend asked for a filet knife so I forged one as thin as I could get it. I am using a propane/firebrick forge. The steel was car leaf spring steel. I forged the blade. Normalized it twice. Heated it to bright orange, quenched it in motor oil once. Out of the motor oil the blade warped a small amount. I then polished the blade up some, and put it in a toaster oven at 400F for an hour. Once it was finished, I put it back into the oven for 425F for another hour. I began polishing again and sharpening the blade but still tried to figure out what to do with t…

I found a blade blank from school. It was a CNC cutting project, and it is for a locking folder. However, in the 10 years since cutting the blank, I don't remember what it is made of. I know that O1 and A2 were the tool steels that we used in class. I know this was cut from tool steel in class. I am pretty sure it is A2 or O1. Now, how do I go about determining what was used? Well, other than sending it out for analysis. (if analysis is only a few $+shipping I am game for sending it) In the last decade it has not picked up any rust, but it has been kept indoors, and still has layout fluid all over it from the manual operations prior to CNC milling. It also h…

Hey guys, I was planning to forge a sword and i was wondering about tempering it. I'm gonna use 5160 spring steel. Which is a leaf spring i got right now. I was wondering if there were anyways of tempering it besides an oven or torch?

I have been working on some stainless knives & kitchen items and want to understand the hardening process for stainless better - I have read some specifications for this process, but, wondered if anyone had any experience. I am forging the material, after an annealing fire. From what I've read, I have to "solution treat (which I interpret as annealing) the pieces after I've worked them, before they can be hardened, then heating the pieces to 850-900 degrees F and holding from 1 to 4 hours, then air cooled (have access to a small kiln for this). I've read some of the related topics that recommend not working in stainless for knives, but, these pieces will left in …

alright last year i made a sword out of a very pathetic metal slab (it was a grss cutting hockey) its a bit rigid mild steel but bends very easily. the rest of the sowrd is awesome but i feel i wasted my energy when i look at the blade can someone PLEAAAAASSSSSSSEEEEEEEE tell me how to temper mild steel? i dont have access to any forge or big burners the max i can gt is a good nice barbecue charcoal fire but plz help me im losing my mind over the stupid blade

I just forge welded a billet out of chainsaw blades. I did it on a coal forge. It seams to have worked out fine and I am going to forge the knife blade tomorrow. Question I have is this....how do you harden and temper Chainsaw blade Damascus? I have not found any clear answers so far in my searches. I am a back yard smith without any fancy tools to work with so my method of doing things has to be with simple tools with a little trial and error. I was thinking of simple preheated oil quench (full dip or edge quench) and 3 cycles in a oven at 400 degrees. Dose this sound correct?

Is it enough to heat a file to demagnetizing level and then slowly cool it down, or is there any specific temperature for softening a file or metal, this will be my first knife, and I want to get it right, any pointers would be helpful...

I've been working on a knife for a customer that's creating a rather steep learning curve. He wants a "Japanese style knife with one of those fancy tips". So I came up with a design and forged 8 inch blade from some 1/4" 1084FG. I forged in the bevels and gave the blade a slight forward taper from guard to tip. The blade turned out quite well I think. I was surprised though! When I quenched the blade it acquired a slight downward curve..... rather than the expected upward curve. The discerning eye will see the difference between photo #1 (annealed) and #2 (hardened). Anyway, I worked that all out and now I'm in the middle of making the habaki(albeit very non-traditi…