If a person will be making knives by stock removal, is it possible to do all of the heating, hardening, tempering first. If this is true where can I purchase metal already treated.
Thanks
TC

It is possible. It will be harder to grind and will need to be kept cool.
I don't know where you can get already heat treated steel.

ron

How would the person who is tempering the blank know where the final edge is going to be so the tempered section is along the final blade and not ground away?

Would grinding not induce stress that should be heat treated out? (not a knife maker, just wondering based off of info I have read in previous post.)

TC, when you use the material removal method, it's mighty tough to keep it cool enough to not lose temper in the blade. Like rmcpb said, the person doing the tempering wouldn't be able to tell where the finished edge would be. I'm not a "Bladesmith", by a long shot. But that makes sense. My 2 cents worth.

Suppose you could temper the whole blank in an oven but then you would have to be MIGHTY careful to grind slowly with water cooling to keep the temper. then you would have the problem of a hard tang that often needs to be drilled.........

Interesting question though.

Thanks guys for all the info, think I will try the the oven heating. I'll let you know what happens.
TC