dwilks

thanks yall! I was planning on testing just figured I would throw it out there and see if anybody had some info. didn't think of asking the manufacturer. I'll look into that, and test myself.

does anybody know what kind of steel, steel carabiners are made  of? I have access to a good amount of retired rescue carabiners and wondering if they are useful for knife blades.

Will do.  I have already found a TON of information and education in the stickies and by using the ever so handy “search”.

Thanks for the info on quench oil and I definitely need to improve on my plunge lines. 

oil was at shop temp (@80 F), didnt realize i needed to heat it. guess i missed that part in my reading and will do some reading about decalescence. Planning on making a quick blade or 3 and do some testing with my heat treating before i make anymore. These 4 were gifts and wont be seeing the abuse that tempering would affect (I hope). 

normalized 3 times, quenched in Canola right at critical temp (lost magnetic so i think i did it right) and dont know if it did any good but the only tempering i did was to bury them in a bucket of sand after the quench and let them slow cool till ambient temp. And yes I have done a little of welding and  woodworking in the past. 

File skated right of of em and they took a good razor edge, hope they hold up. Time will tell. 

Stabilized Box Elder on the first 2, Maple on the 3rd, and Water Buffalo Horn on the Fillet knife.

These are the first knives i've made, 3 forged from 5160 and the fillet knife was ground out of an air saw blade. New to blades, new to forging, but having a good time figuring it all out!