New to knife making.

[TheGreenMan]

And to smithing in general. I have several questions. I have read different postings on the site but can't get the answers. They may be there but i am more of a seeing/doing type than a reading type. I hope that asking some questions specific to me will help me understand what I need to know. I also probably don't have the terminology down. what terminology makes me -----> :confused:

I apologize for the long post but found it helpful to write out all of what I had done. Questions are at the bottom.

I could use some help/tips. I tried to make a knife by the stock removal method out of a file. I annealed the file and used an angle grinder and a bastard file to get to the shape I wanted. Finished up with some 120 grit sandpaper. I normalized the piece twice in a small '2 brick' MAPP gas forge. I removed the scale with a bit more 120 grit. I decided to try and to a differential clay temper. I mixed up some Satanite and put it on the piece covering about 1/2-1/3 of the blade about 1/4 inch thick at the thickest, left the spine bare, and gave it a wavy edge. I let the Satanite dry overnight. The next day I put the piece in the forge and heated it until non-magnetic and quenched it in some hot water as I have no oil and I do not know what the apartment 'people' would think when black smoke started rising from my porch. I tempered the knife in the oven at 350 for 40 minutes 2 times, letting it cool to room temp in between. i tested the edge with a file and the file skipped off the edge just fine. I then polished the knife using 320 grit paper, 400 grit paper, 600 grit, and a polishing stone.

OK couple of things:
1: When I removed the clay you can see the edge of where the clay was as a very shallow 'trench' (decarburization?)and there is some very pitting where there was no clay. After tempering I polished/ground them out. What causes this? Is this normal? Is there a way to minimize this that I could do with my little set up?

2: There were also some small circles (not pits so much as actual circles) of decarburization? under where the clay had been. Again what causes this?

3: When I saw the lines I got excited that I would at least have a bit of a temper line. But after polishing the knife to about 600 grit there was no temper line that I could see. I even tried etching and got nothing. I have seen knifes made from files before that had temper lines. Did I do something wrong or did I just end up with the wrong kind of steel?

4: The knife ended up having a crack in the edge from quenching that went through the hard edge to the temper line, so I really didn't mind playing with it a bit. I did the normalization and reapplied the clay to get some practice but this time there was no decarburization? line. What did I do differently? I can't think of anything. (ETA: Ah, I remember I don't think I removed the scale from the normalizing and i didn't add the Satanite on as thickly.)

5. Is there anything I could use to quench that I don't have to worry about catching on fire that would work better than water?

[char]

oil is the only way to go, I use olive oil it smells great, but opinions vary. a large enough container of oil wont sustain a fire until the container is hot.

[Rich Hale]

REad the article on heat treat in the blueprints section bp0078 you said the fil skippe off after heat treat on the edge tha is way too hard for a working edge and will fail...once it is clear to you your next attept should e easier. Like said water is not the first choioce. the bp may help with that also

[TheGreenMan]

Well it failed due to the water before anything else. So 1: Go to oil no more water, 2: Temper more to get the edge softer, if it is still as hard after an oil quench.

Thanks guys. Your on a roll now don't stop!

I am interested to know about my temper line questions.