SRT02 Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 So I am making my first knife, it is made out of a old railroad spike. I have the blade hammered out pretty well. I twisted the handle as well, but the problem I have ran into in the past is failing to heat treat it right. Is there a way to do this that is somewhat easy to pick up? I tried to get a picture up but something went wrong so it's sort of a bummer. -SRT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 NO right way as its a RR spike. 30 pts carbon at most. Read the Heat Treat sticky. Welcome to I Forge Iron :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 RR spikes don't have enough carbon to harden. Good forging practice though and a perfect example of the value of research. To post a picture: Click on "Go advanced" at the bottom of the quick reply text window. Scroll down in the window that comes up till you see the "Manage attachments" button, click on it. The window that opens will have several "Browse" buttons click on one and select a picture from a file on your computer. Repeat till you have the pictures you want attached to the post selected and click "Upload". When the manager window returns empty, close it, finish your post and submit it. Your pictures will be attached as thumbnail links at the bottom. Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodge Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 If you have a photobucket or similar photo hosting account, you can post them that way too. Just copy and paste the [image]*[/image] url into your message Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SRT02 Posted March 30, 2009 Author Share Posted March 30, 2009 I think I got it. But I'm going to quench it in oil just to see if it will harden a bit more. You never know! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quenchcrack Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 SRT02, don't bother with oil quenching. Several things control the hardness of the metal: 1. Carbon Content 2. Dissolving all the carbon in the austenite before you quench it. 3 The speed of the quench; water is faster than oil and will get you a better hardness with low carbon. Normalize the blade first, then heat a bit HOTTER than non-magnetic, water quench to room temperature. Temper not hotter than 200F. Don't expect the RR spike to hold much of an edge even if you get it heat treated correctly. A .30 Carbon steel can get a Rockwell C hardness of 35 to 50, depending on how much martensite you achieve. Now being new at this, may I suggest you read Blueprint 0078. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SRT02 Posted March 30, 2009 Author Share Posted March 30, 2009 I'll take a look at that blueprint, thanks. ---------- Get it hot, hit it hard! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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