Using files for knifemaking?

[Cleave]

I know files have been used many, many times for making knives and other edged tools. Here's my main questions,

1. For using a single cut mill file, do you need to grind off the teeth before forging or can you just flatten them with the hammer? I know we'd want to avoid cold shuts or stress concentrations creating cracks during the heat treat.

2. What would you quench in?

I'm thinking to make a crook knife and a carving adze (the kind you lash onto a branch handle).

I've made a few knives successfully from a table saw blade with stock removal and a heat treat, and done some other beginner forge work but that's about it.

[swedefiddle]

Good Morning,

Files are mostly made from W1, that means water  hardening. You can hammer the teeth in but that makes little cold shuts near the surface.

Neil

[Latticino]

A bit of an oversimplification.  Files are made from a variety of steel alloys, including high carbon steel like W-1 and 1095 for the better ones as well as lower carbon alloys for those that are only case hardened.  The former are great for knifemaking, but I would grind away teeth if you are just forging rather than forge welding up a billet (San Mai with a file core for example).

As far as quenching, while W-1 may be tagged for a water quench, if you forge or grind down your billet to close to final crossection, I have found that cracking rate for a conventional quench in water is pretty high.  I would consider either an interrupted quench or switching to a fast oil like Parks 50.  In my experience 1095 also quenches more reliably in oil.

[Cleave]

Sounds great, thanks guys. I've had a couple things crack in a water quench. I learned to quench thin stuff in oil first, and not to grind the edge down all the way to nearly sharp.

[JHCC]

If a fine blade you would win,
First forge thick, then grind thin.