Lar45

My buddy Wayne saw the pairing knife I made for the wife and mentioned that he could use one slightly bigger as a hunting knife. The Blade is 52100 and the scales are black and orange G10. Wayne is a vet so I used some pins that are supposed to look like dog paws. I thought that I had them lined up before the glue set but they turned out off a little bit. I'll pay closer attention on the next one. I used a Nickel silver tube for the lanyard hole. It is scary sharp and shaves with ease. I just hope the edge will hold up during hunting season.

Thank you for the links and comments, that's exactly what I needed.

I was hoping to be able to iron out a couple of small wrinkles. I had read somewhere that you could quench in oil, take it out while still hot, straighten any warping, then back to the oil until it was completely cooled. Then into the tempering oven... I'm taking this to mean that it was bad advise? What would be the proper way to take out any warping of the blade after quenching? TIA

Hello everybody I'm making a knife for my buddy. The blade is 52100 and G-10 black and orange scales. My buddy is a vet, so the pins are supposed to look like dog paws. Everything was going fine until I went to heat treat it. I'm not sure if the steel got cooked or if I tried to take out a warp when the steel was too cold. I used some very light taps to straiten out the mild warping. If anyone could give me some advise, I'd appreciate it. I have a propane fired forge. I heat cycled it 3 times, then took it to just above orange and quenched. While it was still hot I tried to straighten a couple of warps, then put back in the oil to finish cooling. It went straight into the preheated toaster oven set at 400F for three one hour cycles. After the last cycle I pulled it out and noticed the fracture after I wire brushed it off some. I had a hard time getting the blade up to the right color in the forge and noticed afterwards that the bottle was going empty. So I'm wondering if the problem might have been from having the blade in the forge for too long trying to get it up to the right temp. I ground out the profile of a new blade and with a new propane tank I was able to heat treat it just fine. I left the steel full thickness without grinding the angle on the blade. Any help would be appreciated.

Well I did manage to get an edge on it It shaved the back of my hand very smoothly, so it should work on a tomato...

I broke down and bought "The Book"... Intro to knife making. I sure hope they send the 2nd edition with the heat treat info. I didn't see any option or info about which version the book was. I've never handled liquid nitrogen, so I think I'll stay away from it, unless it looks like the blades need it, then I'll probably just go with a service. Many years ago I built a 30-378 Weatherby on an m1917 Enfield. After all of the machine work was done, I sent just the barreled action to 300 Below for a cryo treatment. They kept it for 30 days and said that the process helps to form tempered martinsite, and also releave any stress in the gun. I should have shot it before and after, but I didn't think about it at the time and only shot it after. It would shoot groups under the 1" mark and had several in the 5/8" zone.

Hi guys. Thanks for the input, it is muchly appreciated. I found the Dry Ice discussion from 2012, so I will skip the trip to the freezer. I ended up bumping the toaster oven up to 400F and put the steel in for an hour, then tested with the crescent wrench. It didn't break as easily, so I put them back in the oven for another hour at 400F. This time I could lean on the wrench and it didn't break. So I'll update my notes and call it good enough for now. This is what I ended up with. The handles are water buffalo horn.

Hello, I took your suggestion about making something for the wife and came up with this. The blade is 52100 and the handles are water buffalo.

It is supposed to help the remaining austenite form into martensite. At least that's what I've read a couple of different places. Or is this one of those things that someone had an idea and then it got repeated around?...

Thank you very much. All of the different threads start to run together after awhile. I thought that I'd read somewhere about flexing it and having it spring back without breaking to test it. Is 52100 suitable for making a pairing knife?

I was hoping that it would flex abit, then go back to straight.

Hi guys, I started working on a parring knife for the wife and I put a test piece of left over 1/8" thick 52100 in the forge and toaster oven when I tried to heat treat it and then temper. sorry if the picture isn't as clear as it should be, I took about 20 and this was as close as I could get. It kept wanting to focus on the vise instead of the blade. I heat cycled them 3x, then went past critical and quenched. Then I put them in the toaster oven at 350 for an hour. After that I put them in the freezer overnight. This morning I went out and put the test piece in the vise and put a crecent wrench on the end of it to flex test it and it broke very easily. So Do I need to temper at a higher temp, or go longer? Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks Glenn.

I heat cycled the blade 3 times, them took it to just past orange and quenched. After it got to about room temp I put it in the toaster oven at 350F. I meant to only have it in for an hour, but got side tracked and it was 1.5 hours, oops. The next day I tried a file on the spine and it cut fairly easy until it just got the black off, then skated. While I was fileing and shaping the blade it had abit of flex to it, but now I can only get maybe 3/8" flex using my hands. I sanded all the black off and took it to the belt sander with a 220 grit belt. Last night I decided to glue the handles and mixed up some G-flex. I got glue everywhere and lightly clamped it together. After a couple of hours I trimmed most of the extra glue. This afternoon the glue seemed to be setup, so I sanded all the glue off and finished shaping the handles. I sanded the handles with a 600 grit belt, it took a long time to get a smooth surface. After that I tried the handle on a buffer and it brought out a better black polished finish. This is where I'm at so far. I think I need to sand and polish the blade and handles much more, then It's time for a sheath.

Thanks much for the pointers. I just got in some padded vise jaws. I did not do any normalizing before I quenched on the first one. The second knife is .125" thick and hopefully will be used as a hunting knife. I think I'm going to build a jig to hold a steady angle before I try to go farther with it. I also ordered a piece of 1x3" rectangle tube to put the blade into before heating to keep the direct flame off of it.

Hello everyone. First I'd like to say thank you for such an awesome forum, and for all of the information contained here. I've been reading knife making 101 for several days. The boys and I were talking about making some knifes, so the wife bought me a propane fired forge for Father's Day. The only thing that I had on hand to start with was some 3/4" round bar mystery metal. So I chopped off a piece, got it hot and started hammering. This is the blade roughed out and draw filed. The blade turned out at 7" and just didn't look right, so I chopped an inch off and reshaped it. When It looked about right, I heated it to just past non-magnetic and quenched in a bucket of tractor hydraulic oil. Then put it in the oven at 400F for an hour. A file would skate across the flats without digging in, so I hope I did something right. I've since read that I should be using Canola oil, so I'll get a few gallons before my next piece. I saved a cedar stump that we had to clear out this spring and cut some pieces out of the heart and used that for a handle. This is the first knife mostly finished. I made a lot of mistakes, but learned along the way. While I was part way through the first knife, I ordered in some 5160, 52100, 1080 and 1095 in various sizes. For my next knife I picked a piece of 52100 and thought I'd try stock removal instead of forging. I got the profile cut out with a jig saw and sawsall with carbide blades, but they dulled and barely got me through roughing it out. Maybe I should have annealed it before I started? I ground and sanded to get the profile about right, then drilled some holes for the handles and cut some black micarta to fit. I got the handles sanded to fit, but not rounded yet. I bought a bunch of belts for my 4x36 belt sander and thought I'd try grinding the taper into the blade, but my eye was not as good as it was with a file, so It's close, but will need some refinement. I'm thinking of making a jig to hold it at a steady angle. This is where I'm at with the second knife. The bolts are there to just hold the handles on, I'll glue and pin it in place with some brass pins. I'd welcome any comments or pointers of things to do and not do...