Odie Lee

Thanks for the help guys. I agree with you about the new steel. I have some 5160 and some 1080. I have been practicing my forging skills with old coil spring and leaf spring so I don't waste my good steel.

I dropped it after the water quench so it was pretty much toast after the water.

The top picture is the spring material. I heated it past nonmagnetic and quenched in water. It snapped off and a file would dig a little on the outside but not at all on the inside. The second picture is the knife itself. It snapped like glass and has a coarse grain structure. The outside material still grabs the file. I dropped that knife, point down, three times onto concrete and it didn't even break the tip after the water quench. Lol. Again thank you for all the help and advice.

To tell you guys the truth I have not test a piece to see if it will harden. I took it for granted that it was spring steel and should be fine. Rookie mistake. Lol. I don't know what vehicle it came from. I am practicing my my forging skills on small blacksmith style knives with a squirrel tail tang so I can test their cutting ability without spending time working on handles and guards. I performed three thermal cycles after forging, and then heated the blade a little past nonmagnetic and quenched in motor oil. ( I know motor oil is not the best.). The oil was about 100 degrees when I quenched. My triangle file cut about .010 to .015 into the edge. My concern about over heating is due to the fact I'm using an old Buffalo forge and my fire may be to shallow. About 2 or 3 inches from the air vent. I may have an oxidizing fire. Thanks for the help.

I am new to the forum so forgive me if I post this question in the wrong category. I have a knife I forged from coil spring and when I quenched it in oil it would not get hard. After three attempts I tried water and the blade was still easy to cut with a file. I saw a couple of sparks shoot off the blade once during the forging process. Do you think I over heated the blade and caused this problem?