Heat Treating Knives, Blades etc

I know this is a tool, and not a blade, but you guys are really the masters at tempering, so,,, Just built a quickie wrench out of an old truck spring (leaf), guessing 5160, what's the tempering temperature, and what's the quench? Thanks, Drew

So I've decided to build another blade. Let's see this would be number 4. Anyway, after some searching in the archives I've found that several of the "guru's" here recommend a differential treatment. Here's my question / scenario. When I'm making a chisel lets say, I was taught to "shadow" the tool up and down a little bit so as not to create a sharp transition from the quenched to unquenched parts of the tool. Do you do this same thing with the blade if you're going with an edge quench? Another question / scenario I've been thinking about. Since the edge of the blade is not straight. Do you worry about having a hardened portion that's not parallel with the edge…

I went to wal-mart to buy oil to do some oil quenching on a chisel. There were numerous kinds. My question is does the type really matter? I don't know to much about oil. Does viscosity matter? Is there a best kind or is it all the same? Thank you for your help.

This is the first {socketed} medieval arrowhead I made! (First in a long line of heads yet to come!):D

whats better to quench a blade in? water brine or oil, or if theres another method to harden let me know as ill be guessing as i go along:D

This may be stupid but, After edge quenching do you temper and if so how would you temper it. Thanx for the info Eric Knight

Hey folks, I have been itching to hammer out some khukri style blades, but I am worried about the heat treatment. I understand that the kamis who make them use water out of a kettle and pour it onto the hot blade...I guess they do this edge up? I would like to be able to heat the whole thing to critical temp and then harden the edge, and leave the back softer, but because of the curve of the spine I cannot do this, my tang would be as hard as the edge.:confused: So how do you folks deal with curvy blades?

I've been dippin N dabbin with my forge for awhile now. Mostly just everyday things for our 1814 living history group, but like all beginners I have to make a couple of knives just because. My problem is: How exactly do you place a knife in an oven for the tempering process? Lay it on the rack? Hang it from the rack with a piece of wire around the tang? Place it in a small vise? What if its a large bowie style blade? Any and all comments will be most appreciated.

My daughter is in the Navy working on the aircraft P3. A friend of hers sent me a few bearings from the plane to make her a knife from. I used the bearing race to make the knife. My question is what kind of metal is this and how do I heat treat it? I wrote the manufacter but I have not heard back. Any ideas? :confused: Thank you William Weathersby

ok, i need help. everytime i've tried to clay temper my blades, they cracked.:mad: could someone please tell me something to solve my problem. thank you, Matt

Hey all. I've annealed and shortened the sashimi knive i tried to make which cracked when i quenched. The one here. I really only want about 1/8" of the edge of this blade to get hard. So i was thinking of using a torch to heat only the edge, then quenching only the edge in water. I was thinking of coating the whole blade with a thin wash of clay, just enough to keep it from oxydizing at all. Does anyone think I may have sucess this way? Or might this cause the heated edge to split upon hardening? Please keep in mind that this is a sashimi knife the will not get used very often, and only put to careful use cutting fish flesh. So I'm not interested in going f…

i am currently trying to make a macheti out of an old saw mill blade, it is about 2 1/2 ft long and 5mm thick, since it is a saw blade i am guessing it is carbon steel but it seems quite flimsy, i was wondering if i could get an instruction on how to harden it so it is more ridgid or, if it will even get ridged due to the lenth of it,but i am hoping for some advice, thanks shaun.

Anyone ever think of using induction heating to controlling the temperature of the metal when heat treat blades?

I made this knife from a piece of 1 1/4" cable. Normalized it three times after forging to shape. Did not normalize after grinding but have been told this was necessary. Sanded to a 1000 grit finish, did the file work, hardened in oil that I pre-heated till it was hot to the touch. Brought it back to a 1000 grit finish then grinded the cutting edge into the blade without overheating it. I did not edge quench it I just submerged the blade only, straight down in the oil. There was not a crack till after I etched it in 140 degree F muriatic. While I was hand sanding with 1000 grit to highlight the etching I saw the crack. I am assuming this would not have happened if I would…

after fridays knife chat im still dazed and confused.what is the difference in the metal after the above procedures,is one softer than the other?what is the purpose of normalizing?thanks for any info.

where can I find some good recipes for L-6 and MA5M heat treatment? I mean temperatures, time, quenching, tempering, anneling...

Here's another I've made using the same methods as in this thread. I've got to get a little more creative and direct with the application of the clay though.. I think my hamons are a little two simple... Here's some pics. This is W1 drill rod, forged, filed, clayed, quenched by heating in charcoal forge and quenching in brine. Then cleaning up with 250grit water stone, then a hot vinegar etch to show the whole hamon. Filed Clayed Wired Quenched Lt

As you all probably know. .to achieve a good cutting edge and a nice hamon, Japanese bladesmiths applied a mixture of clay, coal dust,ashes and some other ingredients on the blade except for the edge to keep the spine of the blade from cooling too fast and thus keep it flexible while allowing the edge to harden to its full potential. Recipes varied from smith to smith and were very closely kept secrets. What I am interested in knowing is a good recipe for this mixture. Has anyone tried this selective hardening successfully ? I have read all there is online and seen a lot on youtube. . but the exact recipe is never shown. Any info will me much appreciated. Thank y…

finally I can post a thread saying I've had my first bit of success at achieving a hamon/temper line.. thanks to a certain Iforgeiron member (Sandpile) and his generosity, I had some good 1084 steel to experiment with. around my 5th try and 3rd knife attempt (about 3-4 tries each knife) my fathers farrier friend came over and we talked about heats of steel.. He casually mentioned that he doesn't see cherry red, and neither do I!! that got me to thinking, I might just be heating the blade to to cool because "cherry red" looks almost candy corn oarnge to me... so after hearing oarnge is to hot to heat a blade, I always avoided going that hot.. I had been bringing it jus…

so, I have attempted at making a temper line 3-4times now with no success. I use 1050 steel, and satanite. I leave the steel coarsly finised at about 100grit.. I rinse/scrub it with water and a rag, then I wipe it in windex with a clean paper towel.. so the cement does not come off.. I heat it up to above critical.. (almost orange) and quench in a trough of water edge first with a few dunks. I check for straightness (perfectly straight because I normalized so cool!!) and quench it again to completely cool it. I chip off excess satanite carefully so as not to shatter the hardened blade.. and tempered it at a blue tapering to straw color from spine to blade. I then pol…

I have done several searches in different forums but cannot find any info on cryogenically treating blades. I have a number of questions that I hope someone here can clear up for me. I am in the process of making some blades from O1 and CPM3V steel. If I choose to use cryogenic treatment for them what exactly does the cryogenic process do? Does it harden and temper the blade? How many times should the blade soak for hardening and then tempering? Also - final edge sharpening. Before or after cryogenic treatment? I have found that when using heat to harden and then temper blade steel there is mixed opinions. Some like to sharpen before hardening and tempering and some pre…

I noticed that the blade I was working on had a stress crack IN THE BODY OF THE BLADE. Not extending to any of the edges, just this little curve, all the way through the blade. Has anyone seen that sort of thing before, and is it possible to salvage the knife blade? -Jim

Water quenched 1080 , In the picture the blue line denotes the quench line , the red denotes the "Odd activity ". This one was not clayed , it was "edge quenched " in Hot , almost boiling water. Any Ideas ? I think It looks pretty cool but I'm wondering what to call this little flame like effect. Jens

i have a 24in blade that needs heat trating but i dont have long forge to do it so i was wondering if i could push and pull the blades tru the coals and get and even heat to quence the blade

Greetings all. I have a qestion in reguards to obtaining oil for heat treating blades. As I have increased my blade production and blade size I realize that I need to get a large quantity of oil for quenching durring the heat treatment. Previously to this I was using a small amount of oil (say about a gallon) for quenching, as I was only doing smaller knives, one at a time. But with larger blades and more blades being treated at a time, I need some larger amounts of the stuff to prevent it from reaching flash point and causing a fire, and to ensure a full quench for the entire blade. So, my question is, firstly what sort of oil do you use for quenching, where do you get …