First Knife (incomplete)

[NINJ457Y13]

Here are some pictures of my first knife i have been working on. i did this with a angle grinder, dremel, and a file. i realy like the design I came up with. now my plan is to smooth out all the face's with a smaller file. I was wondering what everybody else thought, and if any of you experts could point out any problems i might run into, and tips for heating, do I leave the handle above the water line? do I swirl it in the oil, or hold it still? how soon after do I need to temper it?
any input is appreciated thanks.

[calixt0]

Do not swirl when quenching. swirling can cause uneven cooling and with it warping. before you get to a quench you should heat to red hot and then let cool (cool to the touch with bare hands). It if cools straight then you are good. if it has a bend in it now then you need to heat red hot again and straighten and let cool again. keep do this until you can heat and cool and when it cools its still straight. You can often skip this but if you do you take the chance of having a warp or crack show up during your quench (after all the hard work is done)

now is the time to work your blade, any grind etc. don't make it sharp as a sharp blade does strange things during the next step.

when that is done heat it up till the metal is no longer magnetic. If you can find when it is not longer magnetic and go one color range beyond that and let soak at temp for at about 5 -10 mins. Take immediately from the fire to quench. when dipping in the quench (oil or water) tip tip first and straight down. if you get sideways it can warp your blade. if you can't get the whole blade in then tip the blade in edge first again straight down. Don't swirl. Hold it as still as possible until the boiling stops.

now after this is done your metal should be nice and hard. so hard that if dropped it may break. At this point I very carefully take and sand the blade so when tempuring I can see the color change. after sanding the blade should be relatively shiny. put it in the oven at 400 degree for 1.5 yo 2 hours. pull it out and let it cool till cool to the touch. then in the oven again for 2 hours at 400. the blade should now be hard but not so fragile.

take and keep just the edge of the blade in some water and heat with a torch till the spine of the blade is just turning blue. that should give it some rigidity but some spring too. hope this helps

shaun... all this I've learned from others on other forums. I've only completed 1 knife so far but was able to do it with out loosing my first blade to a crack.

Edited November 19, 2009 by calixt0

[NINJ457Y13]

well thanks for being the first to post. some of that stuff I have heard before ,and some I haven't. before I can even begin to heat treat I need to tweak my forge. its not heating very evenly and I think its because I'm putty to much air into it. and most of the heat gets blown away from the air pressure. here are some picture of the forge i made. these pictures are from a night were my friend
and I melted glass in it just to see if we could and we did.