1084 and saw mill steel question

ScottRoush

ScottRoush

Joined
Jan 10, 2010
Messages
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Hi.. Two things:

When you buy 1084 bar stock (not a blank), does it come fully annealed? I know that it is soft enough for grinding... but I need to bend it after shaping for making hook knives. Should I anneal it just to make sure?? I don't have any further information on it's source... I just know that it was purchased by somebody for knife making.

Also... What is the best heat treatment for L6 saw mill blade? I just finished grinding and I need to quench and temper. I have a ceramics kiln that can hold 1500F. And what is a good tempering cycle?? And.... I've never attempted putting on a hamon line. I have some satanite coming to make my forge.... Is there anything to lose by giving the spine a coat of satanite before my hardening sequence??



Thanks a lot!
 
The 1084 comes from the mill in a spherodized (annealed) state, and
can be filed....drilled...ground readily in that state. BUT if you're trying to
bend it...that should be done hot.

Are you cartain the sawmill steel is L6...? Most isn't.
 
I got the steel from another maker and he THOUGHT it was. It is very think and comes from the big saw mill blades... not a small circular saw.

How do you think I should handle it since I'm not sure????
 
If the maker that you got it from has had some success with the saw
steel. I'd suggest asking him how he processed it. If that's not an option,
I'd focus my efforts on some known material, like the 1084.
 
I would not bet that is L6 could be many different types of steel, here in Oregon seems most of them that do not have brazed on teeth are 8670M. If you want some saw plate that you will know what it is contact my friend Gene Martin he has it tested and he can tell you how to heat treat the saw plate he has.

http://customknife.com/

As for heat treat unless you know what it is it will be hard to guess how to heat treat it, good luck with it.
 
Thanks for the replies fellas. First of all... The 1084. I'm using a tutorial posted on CaribooBlades about making these knives. He anneals, shapes/grinds, and then puts a big dowel in a vise and uses a big wooden mallet to bend it over the dowel.... cool. He just stresses that the metal has to be fully annealed. There is a probably a better way to do it... but thats whats in his tutorial.

As to the saw mill steel... well, I've put a lot of work into grinding it... and it will be my first real blade (I don't count my other resurrected stuff)... so I wanna at least try to treat it. And I've got some brass rod to do some testing with once it's been hardened... So I guess I will find out. I guess I will just go with: Bring it to non-magnetic and then quench in oil and see how she goes....
 
Bring it to non-magnetic, quench in oil then temper to 400F. If it's dark straw to slightly vermillion, you're there. If it's still straw colored, raise the ht 25 degrees and retemper.
Works for me.
 
Ryman/Hemlock setters.
If you have a lot of sawblade material , it might be profitable to get apiece spectrographed so ya know exactly what you have and can HT accordingly.
 
25$ for a chem analysis is worth every penny in heat treat, sometimes even when you buy L6 it isn't L6
 
Not all of the 1084 you get from suppliers comes annealed. The last batch I got is to hard to saw or drill but I just cut it with a fiber saw and then anneal the knife size pieces, Not a problem at all.
 
Thanks fellas... I have only two pieces... the current one I'm grinding on and another. So I will grind them and test them the best I can.

I have yet to play around with the 1084... so I'm not sure how hard it is. I need to drill my tang holes, so that should be pretty informative.

Thanks again...
 
in case this makes a difference to anyone... I just found out the piece was cut from a 52" saw mill blade.
 
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