Heat Treating Knives, Blades etc

Hi all. This is my first post...anyway. I'm restoring a old axe head for a friend the blade is going to need alot of grinding to get the pitch of the blade right. Iv heard that that will make the edge prone to chipping if not heat treated properly after. The butt of the axe is horably mushroomed but I want to use the mushrooming to make a good hammer head. I don't know how to heat treat it to get a good solid edge aswell as a sturdy hammer head on the other side? Any advise, comments or questions would be much appreciated!

I've been searching through threads here and elsewhere, and I've found plenty of guides through from start to finish. I'm looking for some guidance on restarting when things didn't work out. I had a go today at heat treating some 5160 blades. First time trying 5160, so these were two practice pieces I had made to make sure I had the full process down before mangling something with more time invested. Propane forge was the heat source and preheated canola oil was the quenchent. The first attempt did not result in a hardened blade (file dug in). I believe my mistake was going too soon after hitting non magnetic and not getting quite hot enough. I reheated, this time holding…

Came across this tube furnace at a very reasonable price. K thermocouple installed in it too. Just need to wire it up with a PID controller and SSR and install end cap insulation and I'll be ready to run! Has anyone else used something similar for heat treating?

Ok I know that there is somewhere I can find this info but I am either not using the right key words to search it and I've been searching here and google for about three hours now, so please do not just reply "use the search bar". You don't have to give me a detailed explanation if you know there is a link to the info or know which keywords to use for searching that will suffice (links to reliable sources being preferred) Anyways the question is, when tempering hardened steel, why do different temperatures affect hardness. Like what is happening molecularly or whatever that makes it softer but tougher at say 400 degrees whereas 300 will be harder but more brittle (te…

Hey guys, I just started heat treating my first knife today. Got it quenched, put it in the oven at 400 for an hour. Once done, took in out and shoved it a pail of water (as stormcrow told me to do), put it back in the oven again. Once done I took it out again and shoved it in the pail of water. About this time the oven needed to be used for some thing else besides "baking" knives. Sooo.... a couple hours later, a few dozen cinnamon rolls and a couple loaves of banana bread later, I get the oven again. But, the knife has been sitting on the counter for a couple hours. Does this effect the tempering process? Should I just continue as if there was no halt …

Just got a large, tanto, bushcraft knife forged to shape, made out of 5160. And I'm almost done with the rough grinding. So up next is heat treating. I've read The Complete Bladesmith: Forging Your Way To Perfection, and The $50 knife shop. So I've got the general method down for carbon steels I think. I hope. #1: Normalize the blade by bringing it up to non-magnetic, and than letting it air cool in still air. Do this three times to relieve stress. #2: Heat your oil to some where between 90-140 degrees Fahrenheit ( really don't have any idea why, just doing it). Heat your knife blade slowly and evenly to non-magnetic, once there quench the blade in…

Howdy y'all. I've been reading up on hardening the spike knives for a good while now and something has come to mind.... I've noticed how the carbon content is nowhere near decent knife material, tbh I started only making them for practicing my hammer control. A buddy of mine runs a chrome plating shop for "growing" oil field parts. Submersing different shafts in chrome acid and the parts get bigger. And hard. Would this make a better knife blade if I made the knife completely then give it to him for plating? Of course it means I have to re polish it but o well.... any thoughts?

Hey fellows, So I cycled three times and then quenched this 1084 blade in canola oil today and it bent.. not in the typical direction.. at least not for me. The blade is triangular in cross section and 20 1/4" overall. I expect some warping down the spine on occasion but I've never had one bend toward the cutting edge before. Can anyone give me some advice on what I did wrong.. or a way to avoid this?

Have made a knife out of an old semi spring and did a hand filed profile on the blade . Once I heat treated it I ended up with this scale paternity in the steel

Here are some pictures of some blades made from W2 getting quenched in water for 2-3 seconds then oil. Tempering was was done in a electric oven.

I've taken that last couple of months to improve my equipment and practice skills, I felt comfortable to make my first finished knife. That being said I was wondering what quenching oil do most of you use and what is a good/ workable handle material? As always thanks for the help.

I hesitate to ask this question because I have no idea what steel I am using, but maybe it will generate some interesting discussion anyway. I made a knife and it warped and twisted very badly in multiple planes during the hardening quench. Here's the story: I inherited a table saw and a few dozen circular saw blades that are all from the 1960s. So I decided to make a round knife for leather working, using a circular saw blade as the steel. All went well until the hardening quench. It ended up warped, twisted and disfigured. I made a new knife, but went very slowly with the cutting and grinding to be sure that the steel never got hot, so I wouldn't have to …

I have a small drop point I'm making from a file. Usually I'd forge it and have to do the full heat treat to figure out but didn't want to wast time or steel. I've read things online that I've never found good reliable sources that agree so I have to ask. I've read files are left as quenched with no tempering so that means it's going to be impossible to shape by hand. I have the basic profile cut/ground out but now I'm at the point where I need to put in the bevels. I know I need to temper it before I try to go any further which is where I'm wanting to double check some information. I'm seeing tempering suggested at 600F (for 1095) which seems high for a knife. I usually …

My younger brother requested a dagger. I've never done that before so I opted to use some 3/4 inch coil spring for the stock. I got some practice "uncorkscrewing" a blade in the process, but overall I was fairly pleased with the results. The bevels came out pretty well and I had no deep hammer marks to deal with so cleanup on the grinder was relatively minor. After the rough grind it was time for 3 times of normalizing then quenching. I use my propane forge with a 2.5 inch diameter piece of stainless pipe with one end hammered closed, so no direct flame impingement is possible. Using my trusty magnet I went through my normal routine. Heat to non-magnetic, back in …

Is there anyone in the San Antonio area that provides heat treating services, or any members here that would provide services. I have knives in 1095, files, and rasps. I am currently working on researching which forge im going to build. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

hey guys so the only steel I have used so far is 1084 and now mostly 440c. I want to start learning a couple other steels, I have a small bar of CPM S35VN. I am also thinking about CPM 154. So either way lets use the CPM S35VN for this conversation.. as far as the quench goes the spec sheet says, " Quench: Air or positive pressure quench (2 bar minimum) to below 125°F (50°C), or salt or interrupted oil quench to about 1000°F (540°C), then air cool to below 125°F (50°C)." ok so I don't have access to any salt tanks so as far as the other ways. First am I right to assume that by interrupted oil quench it is just like a regular oil quench but when the blade cools to about 1…

I'm trying to make a quench tank for tridents and it's posing to be a problem. The weapon is 3 tines in a flat configuration. I thought about a big round piece of pipe in the 12" to 16" but there is so much useless space of cold oil to heat up. So I moved on to trying to find a 14" x 3" piece of rectangular tubing that is 4' feet tall. In order to get that piece steel yard wants me to buy a 20' long piece for massive $$$ amount of money. I may have to weld the tank up from angle iron and flat plate, which is a huge project obviously. I looked at some wide U-channel that was 15" wide and the height was 3.5" so if I welded it together I'd get at 15" wide by 7" tall tank.. T…

Hey guys so I heat treated a batch of knives and grinded a couple and test with brass rod. I know that is not a accurate way to judge hardness but its good enough to know that this batch came out MUCH softer than usual. I don't know why I did everything as I usually do I guess there is something I over looked but I can not figure it out...I have never had this problem so the only way I see to fix it is to re harden so I guess my question is what do I have to do..oh the steel is 440C I see on the spec sheet annealing instructions do I have to anneal everything before I re harden?? I have heard with some steels you have to normalize but there is nothing about normalizing on…

hey guys so I have been using a THICK Styrofoam cooler to put liquid nitrogen in for cryo treating the stainless I use. good side I don't have to spend a bunch of money on a dewar, down side it only lasts for 2-3 days so I have to profile and get a bunch of blades ready for heat treat and do them all at once other wise I would be going through a lot of liquid nitro gen if I went and did 1 or 2 blades at a time, I have been doing it this way for a lil while but I think I am ready to invest in a dewar so I can keep the liquid nitrogen for a extended period of time so I don't have to run around with a chicken with its head cut off trying to heat treat as many blades as possi…

Today I finished forging and hardened several woodworking tools. Immediately after quenching I cleaned them up a bit on the belt grinder and then used the dragon's breath of the forge to bring most of the tool length up to a nice blue, with a deep straw color at the cutting edge. These were made from leaf spring and coil spring. The question is once tempering has been done that way is there any real benefit to a "soak" type of temper for a couple hours? For knives I normally do 2 temper cycles for 2 hours each one day apart at a specific temperature. Everything I've read indicates that time at temperature is important or at least desirable, but if this question has be…

Been checking New Jersey Steel Baron for some 1075 or 1084 steel ..they have them show out of stock for several weeks now; I sent a couple emails as to when the steel might be back in stock ; no emails back?? I have only order a couple times for them. Are they sometimes out of stock for 1075 or 1084 for period of time ?? I'm in no big rush to get steel, can wait ..Other Steel supplies that take small quantity orders? thanks

The rasps I have harden in brine, but warp, even when normalized. They do not seem to harden (or warp) in oil. What to do? Does stock removal vs forging make a difference in how rasps behave when quenching? Any help welcome!

Here is a new quench tank I finished up to hold the parks 50 quench. After hearing about two other Smiths who shop burned down in the last year , I figured I'd make this one right with a wheeled base and with a hinged lid that flips down in case of fire. I also made my first forged hinge to fit on the tank.

Hello fellows and lady friends. I am trying to heat treat a tomahawk i made from a old ballpeen hammer. I have annealed, i have tried everything but i cant get this thing to harden. I got to non-magnetic, quenched in canola oil at 140°. That didnt work, then tried water, still not hard, any suggestions?? A file will still bite and now i dont know what to do??? HELP!!!! This thing turned out beautiful but not worth a xxxxx if i cant get it hard????

Given that I lack a specialized tempering oven, I was wondering if it is possible to temper blade steel (I'm using 1095 currently) in either a kitchen oven or a grill. I really don't have the money to buy a tempering oven, which is why I'm asking this question in the first place (yes Steve, before you chastise me rather than answer this question, I did look for a similar question and couldn't find anything). There is, however, a problem that I see with using the oven: It is in a kitchen, and my forge is outside, so I'll also ask how long does in take a quenched, untempered 1095 steel blade to crack after the quench? Perhaps if I move this post to the blad…