January 10, 201511 yr I'm working on a hunting sword that has a 21 inch blade made out of 1075. The thickness at the hilt is 5/16. Tapering down to about an 1/8 at the point. One inch wide. On my knives I leave the blade about the thickness of a dime to prevent cracking during the quench. Is that a good rule of thumb for these longer blades as well or should it be thicker? Thanks very much!
January 10, 201511 yr Simple answer yes a dime thickness would be fine, I tend to go hair thicker. Good luck!
January 18, 201511 yr I would always allow a little extra thickness on a sword to allow for small corrections in warping to be ground out. However.....You can not leave the edge thicker than the thickness that will fully thru harden in the steel you are using.......leave as much thickness as you can get away with whilst getting good edge hardness.
January 19, 201511 yr Author Thats great advice I actually quenched the blade i was talking about today and tempered it. It warped a little but all in all a good experience. I learned lots about my equipment bringing that long blade into existence. Now to tackle the hilting!
January 19, 201511 yr Warpage is something thats almost always going to happen to some degree, Glad it survived but pics or it didnt count :P
January 19, 201511 yr Author Softening the spine more than the oven did. First time using hot tongs for tempering. Good trick i picked up here just the other day
May 30, 201511 yr On water quenched blades , I try for about 1/10 on the ( edge) Oil quench not so thick . A dime is a good thickness
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