So I bought some 1095 hoping to make some knifes out of known steel. But I have made three knifes with it and had problems with all of them. When I went to test them I picked up some pine from the garage floor just to carve a little and see how the knife cuts but it kind of flattened the edge were I cut so I found a knot in the wood and carved that and it chipped the blade. So I figure I did not temper it enogh so today I tempered one of the knifes at 435 degrees for an hour twice and I seem to have the same kind of problem. Any suggestions? Thanks.

did you do any other heat treatment ?

How are you normalizing and quenching? How thin are you grinding before and after HT?

I quenched in canola oil and I ground pretty thin before heat treat 

Did you normalize before heat treat?

How thin did you grind beforehand? Most makers leave a dime or nickle's thickness, and grind the rest of the way after HT

I heat treated  after quench and did nothing in between and my edge was way thinner than a dime or nickles thickness when I heat treated 

36 minutes ago, Q Fausey said:

I heat treated  after quench and did nothing in between and my edge was way thinner than a dime or nickles thickness when I heat treated 

HT after quench ??? HUH ?

 

12 hours ago, Steve Sells said:

HT after quench ??? HUH ?

What do you mean he asked if I normalized before heat treat?

Please do us all a favor, let's start from the beginning of your process. After you finished shaping you knife you did what? Spell it all the way out in order with all the details you can. Maybe then we can better help.

Ok when I was done shaping my knife I quenched it in canola oil but there was a twist in the blade so I heated it back up fixed the twist then quenched it agin in the same oil I then ground the blade thinner than a dime thickness as already discussed and tempered it in the oven at 435 for an hour till it was straw yellow after that I let it cool polished of the temper colors and tempered it the same way another time I then sharpened the blade all the way and discovered that the edge got little chips in it even when carving on soft wood then I came here and posted this to try and figure out the problem I do aprieciate all the help so far but we have not gotten anywhere 

54 minutes ago, Q Fausey said:

Ok when I was done shaping my knife I quenched it in canola oil but there was a twist in the blade so I heated it back up fixed the twist then quenched it agin in the same oil I then ground the blade thinner than a dime thickness as already discussed and tempered it in the oven at 435 for an hour till it was straw yellow after that I let it cool polished of the temper colors and tempered it the same way another time I then sharpened the blade all the way and discovered that the edge got little chips in it even when carving on soft wood then I came here and posted this to try and figure out the problem I do aprieciate all the help so far but we have not gotten anywhere 

How hot did u take it to quench it? And was the oil warmed or was it cold

4 hours ago, Q Fausey said:

Ok when I was done shaping my knife I quenched it in canola oil but there was a twist in the blade so I heated it back up fixed the twist then quenched it agin in the same oil I then ground the blade thinner than a dime thickness as already discussed and tempered it in the oven at 435 for an hour till it was straw yellow after that I let it cool polished of the temper colors and tempered it the same way another time I then sharpened the blade all the way and discovered that the edge got little chips in it even when carving on soft wood then I came here and posted this to try and figure out the problem I do aprieciate all the help so far but we have not gotten anywhere 

That's why I said spell it out. We still need more info though. As nick asked, how hot was it when you quenched? I'm also curious, how do you grind and why did you grind before tempering?

If it got hardened (not sure from lack on info) it would have been very difficult to grind, and the act of grinding could fracture from stress form forging, worsen any micro fractures created by too high of a heat, and so far you didnt follow the pinned instructions for the heat treat. if you did you didnt mention them. I dont see any normalizing, or  making sure anything is at correct or even heat before the quench...

All right it looks as if I've done too mutch wrong for you guys to figure it out. So could somebody tell me how a should have done it. keep in mind I'm working on a brake drum coal forge and I'm tempering in a kitchen oven.

Check the knife making class write ups out... Covers everything

If you are going to try to rethink this whole process, do yourself a big favor and read up more.  Also, 1084 would be a much easier steel to learn heat treat basics on as it is more forgiving.