Heat Treating Knives, Blades etc

Odd question, an you quench a blade in tea? you know like milk 2 sugars kind

Have taken on board what the "admin" bods have advised....spending my time reading, as i wait for bits of equipment that are sourced 2nd hand........... a while ago i came across this website.."threeplanes.net".........to do with woodworking tools...but has a few pages on heat treating 01 tool steel QUESTION has any body read it and what is your opinion of it...should i stay clear of it or use it as a good reference point ? cheers ditch

*I realize I accidently posted in the blacksmithing forum instead of the bladesmithing forum...however I am finding it difficult to put this in the appropriate area, my apologies!* So I'm working on my second knife project (posted my first one earlier), and I had some questions with regards to the heat treat (which I am planning to do tomorrow). The piece itself is a dagger I am working on out of 1095 steel. I have the profile and grinding done for it, and am getting ready to heat treat, but a bit nervous about the quench. I am planning on using clay along on the spine of the dagger on both sides, but wasn't certain if there was a certain time to apply th…

I'm trying to heat treat 3 knives out of 1095 and I'm having issues with it. I have a propane forge with 2 burners. I have no issues getting the steel up to temp. I do not have anything to monitor the exact temperature so I've just been going to non magnetic and then quenching in canola oil, heated to 135 degrees. When I take the knife out, I test it by scraping it with a file and the file always digs in. I have looked up videos, looked on message boards and I am doing exactly the same thing as everyone else (and in many cases the exact same setup) and the steel is not getting any harder. Does anyone know what I might be doing wrong? I'm so close to throwing in the towel …

Good afternoon friends. I just recently started using clay and trying to do differential hardening instead of a full quench. I'm working with some thin blades and thought it would be good to have the flexibility being of a softer back. Also like the hamon line on these longer blades. I'm working with o1 steel 1/8 " thick . My question is after I have heated and soaked the blade in the forge. I only do an edge quench, I don't submerge the whole blade. That leaves the clayed part of the blade still very hot. Do I need to remove the clay as soon as possible after the quenching process to keep the residual heat from migrating back into the quenched area of the bl…

I tried searching for my question, but I can't seem to find anything. I'm a beginner, this is my first knife and I decided to use a leaf spring to make a tiny 3 inch long by 1 inch wide knife to begin with. The shape is good, I heated it up and left it to air cool and after a few minutes I tried to file it down with a bastard file, but the file skated. I have no idea why it hardened, so I heated it up again and tried putting it in the dirt to cool and still the file skated. I tested the leaf spring and it doesn't skate a file, anything I'm missing?

Already have built a vertical quench tank, but am looking to build a smaller, horizontal tank for quenching just portions of a knife blade. Ideas?

Reshaped an old flat bastard Nicholson (20-40 years old). And specific thoughts on heat treating/tempering?

Making a small ax/wedge to use when splitting wood for handles. From a rusted old ball peen hammer (pre-1950). Still have some polishing left to do although will leave in the black when done, not all shined up. Thoughts on the best heat treating approach?

I live in Kitchener ON, and I am wondering what is the best blade quenching oil? Does anyone know where i can go to get some in or around my area?

I'm sure these questions have been asked...but for the life of me I can't find this info on here with a search. ...mostly I just find something that says "I normalized..etc" I haven't even lit my forge..but I am trying to get the steps in my head if that's OK. I plan to forge a blade from 1084. I've read it's smart to normalize the blade before the quench in order to have a chance to fix any warping before the steel is hard. To normalize with a charcoal forge (if that info matters)..Do I take my shaped blade and heat it to critical/non magnetic then just let it air cool until I can hold it with a bare hand? Then check for warp..and correct ei…

Being new to bladesmithing, I had considered using Tempilsticks to help me properly (more/less) gauge temperatures mainly for quenching/heat treating. I looked on Amazon (Tempilstik 28066 Surface Temperature Indicator, One Indicator, 1500 Degree F) and found them, in about 100 different temperature gradients. In my research of metals and how to harden them some( ie 52100,) have some fairly specific temperature soaks for optimal hardening. A thermocouple will tell you the temp of one spot in the forge, or possibly of the flame (I use propane) if sitting in it; but a line all the way down the blade might be more accurate to the temperature of the metal itself? I decide…

Hello all. Great forum, great art! I am a fan of the forging show, and while I don't make blades, I sure enjoy buying them. I have noticed at the gun shows that there are many more hand made knife vendors around which is a great thing! Blacksmith revival!! On to business, I recently bought sight unseen the ( try not to cringe) budk jousting sword. item 44 bk2304 and I post that because the description is all I know about the construction. It is an India blade that has grain, does that mean it was forged? 30" long 3/16th inch thick, and the edge is the size of a dime. I do have some hand forged katanas and the grain on my 1060 blade looks very similar under magnificati…

Good afternoon friends. I need a bit of guidance on heat treating D2, I recently took on a 4 knife project for some meat cutting/ butcher knives. I've exclusively used basic oil quenched steels up to this point, but being used in a moisture rich environment I opted for d2 being it's semi stainless hopeing it would resist corrosion a little better. Well I thought I had done my homework and had a plan for an air quench chamber. Well the first blade was a complete disaster. Now I have to order another piece of stock to complete my project. Anyway I am useing .170 thick x 1.750 wide bar stock from alpha knife supply. I hammer forged the cutting edge of the blade to p…

Since I started forging, I have a cousin that is really into the art of it, not so much the study, if that makes sense. He saw a few damascus products I have made and wants one/wants to help me make him one. Wants a skinning knife for an awesome elk hunt he was drawn for in Sept/Oct. He found, and already bought, his own steels: W2 and 52100, and wants to have me try to make a knife out of them. He thinks since each steel is used to make pretty good knifes by themselves, that a blended billet would be a fantastic combo. I tried to talk him out of that combo, but to no avail. So I'm gonna try it. My main question is the heat treat. If I'm even lucky enough to get the …

Hello everyone, been a while! I said a while ago that my friend had some metal to give me from work, and boy did he deliver! I got around 20lbs of High-Manganese proprietary metal from a refinery. They are cutoffs from the big pipes that they use. Because it is proprietary metal, the only thing he could tell me about it is that it is High-Manganese because he has to use a respirator full face mask to cut it with the cutting tools hehe. So one of the ribbon like pieces he gave me is pretty small, like 1/8" thickness and I was going to try to smooth it out, thin out the edge and see what kind of an edge it can hold. If it is good enough I might consider weldi…

I have a couple of knife blades ready to harden and temper. I have an old deep fryer that I plan to use to warm peanut oil for hardening. I do not have a toaster oven yet and my wife does not want me to use her oven. I was thinking of hardening the blades and then turning the deep fryer up to 400 deg. and after the oil reaches temp. putting the blades back in for a couple of tempering cycles. Has anyone done this, or does it sound reasonable? Thanks in advance.

Hey gang, I've been doing some reading about how well A2 performs as a steel for wood working tools. I found a good price on some A2 in the size I want for making wood chisels of various sizes. However, some places I'm reading for heat treat say you absolutely have to have heat treat foil and some say you do not for air hardening. Anyone here have any thoughts or experiences with it?

I was wondering what type of oil I should use on an old car leaf spring. Right now all I got is old motor oil I have sitting around would that work or no?

Hello all. I have had a theoretical metallurgical question rattling around in my head for a few days now. It seems impractical, in truth, and I'm never going to attempt this. Just food for thought. Let's say that someone welded up a billet containing W2, O1, and A2, with the goal of making a knife. How would one go about heat treating this knife? Since it contains water hardening, oil hardening, and air hardening steels, I see no effective way to actually do it. Keep in mind I'm not a master bladesmith or an expert metallurgist. It's probably more advisable to just not make a knife from all three but it's a question that I've been pondering for some time, and …

Ok, first off, i know that Rebar is not a good metal for making knifes, but i just started trying to make knives and i didn't want to waste the only piece of high carbon i have, but the knife is coming out better than i thought. Is there a way of heat treating the knife to make it stronger then heat treating it the normally? or should i just treat it as i would with high carbon. (and by heat treat i mean the whole prosses, including the temper)

Hi guys, this post is going to be a tad longer so i hope you bear with me. The basic reasoning behind it is, that i want to validate my understanding of heat treatment and the processes that happen in the steel. I am looking to have a knive made. 8 mm thick 60cm overall length. A very large chopper. The steel of choice is 5160. I really do want to write my own HT protocoll. This is not because i don't trust a potential maker, but i want to feel like i am part of the process and put my theoretical knowledge to use. Plus that way i know what happened to the knife and i can adjust as necessary with the next order and if it fails i have noone but myself to blame. When…

Good day. I have recently obtained some 440C, and I was considering making a kitchen knife from it, due to it being stainless. I've read about how difficult it can be to forge, so it will likely be a purely stock removal knife. Though I typically forge my blades, I've done a few all stock removal. Not quite as fun in my opinion, but a better option given the material. I'm concerned about the heat treat, but I would very much so like to do it myself, rather than sending it to someone. Now... Everything I've been able to pull up on various websites about heat treating 440C is conflicting. Some say oil quench, some say air hardening, some say you can do either (whi…

My question is whether heat treating a blade that has been heat treated in order to give it a blue hue would change the overall temper of the blade. Mostly asking to see if I could blue a blade to a nice teal/ cobalt color and still get it to a good temper, because I know that trying to temper at the temperatures for this (550-600F) is pretty off for a strong blade. I was considering doing this to a 1095 steel so feel free to give me some input.

Hello everyone... I have access to these pump bearings. I tried looking into the type of bearing steel it is and whether its case hardened or not. I had bearing material that wouldn't harden before, not even in water. I came to the conclusion that particular bearing may be case hardened. I know there's better steels out there, but I like to understand what I have. The make of this current bearing is from: SKF 7315 EXPLORER. I cut the race off, the balls are about 1" in diameter. I then cut a piece off the race, hammered to about 1/8" thick. I quenched in water and it broke in half pretty easy. I am curious about the grain structure...its …