.075 L-6 Fillet knife heat-treat

Burchtree

Burchtree

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I've got some used bandsaw blade material out of L-6 that is about .075 thick. I'm going to make some fillet knives for my cousin and father and was wondering about heat-treating this to get the best "flex" out of it that I can.

Thanks all --
Burch
 
Whatever you decide, I would heat treat the blades before grinding.
 
Danbo, these were made in my pre-knife-show years (1982 - 1995) and found their way into the hands of fishermen from Missouri to Florida. I have sharpened and refurbished a few but have never seen one for sale. Made a bunch of hunters and Knitchen knives from saw steel also, you may remember a few of the early hunters :)
 
Okay -- I meant "returnable flex." :D I bought the piece from Dan Gray awhile ago and is about 12-inches wide and sure plays like L-6, but not sure now. :confused:

Did you do full quenches on yours Don?
 
Michael, yes, full quench. I would normalize a couple times after profile, then rough grind to 120 grit, leaving edge thickness around .030, I was using a torch back then, would heat to 1500f +or- and quench in oil (longer baldes, 8''-10'' were a challange but I got good with the torch) I would leave the blade in the oil for about 10 seconds then pull out and check for straightness which was easily sraightened right out of the quench by hand holding the very warm blade in a rag, then temper at 400f and finish grind to 320 grit with edge thickness of .005 to .010. I made over 2000 knives from saw steel (old circle saw and 10-12''bandsaw) and not one acted like L6. These old knives have held up good over the years and their owners have been pleased with the performance.
 
Thanks a ton Don -- I guess I'll get to work on those then. Whatever it is, it cuts well -- I use a scrapper one to cut the sandpaper off my disk grinder. :)
 
Hey Burch, you goin to the BAM meeting at The Ozarl Knifemaking School Jan 20th? I'll be helping Jody Muller with a mosaic demo and bringing a truck load of W2 for all interested. Hope to see ya there.
 
I will now -- I didn't know about it. :D I'll probably pick up some more W-2 while I'm there.
 
sunfishman said:
Hey Burch, you goin to the BAM meeting at The Ozarl Knifemaking School Jan 20th? I'll be helping Jody Muller with a mosaic demo and bringing a truck load of W2 for all interested. Hope to see ya there.
Click to expand...

Woo hoo! Don's giving away W2! :)
 
Burchtree said:
Okay -- I meant "returnable flex." :D I bought the piece from Dan Gray awhile ago and is about 12-inches wide and sure plays like L-6, but not sure now. :confused:

Did you do full quenches on yours Don?
Click to expand...

I missed this I guess :o
Mike
the 6" inche and wider UDDEHOLM I have will be
UHB-15N20
C: 0,75% Si: 0,30% Mn: 0,40% P max: 0,020% S max: 0,010% Ni: 2,0%


some of the first stuff I had I was told it was L6 but they were wrong I believe,
once I started to get the UDDEHOLM steel .
I got these specs right from UDDEHOLM them selves..
there is lesser quality steel used for ribbon steel out there..
just one of these blades I get (the bigger of them) run ~700.00 each when it was new :eek: there's some quality there :)
 
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