1095 heat treat

B

blademan 13

Joined
Jan 25, 2000
Messages
4,492
After completing about a dozen knife kits with pretty good success and a few ground from heat treated blanks, I am ready to get my feet real wet. I have purchased some 1095 bar stock and an looking forward to making my first complete knifes from scratch. I will be doing mainly stick and full tangs, with flat and convex grinds. I have access to a Paragon oven/with controls and am looking for heat treating tips for this steel; preparation before treating, hardening range, quenching, tempering charts, etc. Any help will be greatly appreciated. I just want my blades to perform the best they can with the material used.

------------------
It's only a mistake if you fail to learn from it!
 
Blademan,
I heat treat 1095 and might be able to help you out.
1)if you just finished forging and grinding your blade, Put it in your forge and heat it so a magnet won't stick. Take it out and let it cool down on it's on own. Do that two more times. It is called normalizing and does something to the molecular structure.it makes then grain structure small i think.
2)after normalizing is complete, bring your steel up to non magnetic again, only this time quench it it motor oil or olive oil or vegy oil. You will want to preheat the oil with another piece of scrap steel so you can't hardly stand to have your finger in it.
3)Tempering-after the quench your 1095 will be really hard....too hard. After cleaning all the oil off of it you will need to put it in the oven at about 350 for an hour. then take it out and let it air cool. The do that two more times.it will turn to a straw color when it is just about ready.
A few things to remember. You should straiten your blade before the final heat treat and then check it before you quench so you don't have a bend blade.Also, don't get the steel too hot. Heat it, check it with the magnet, heat it, check it....until the magnet doesn't stick...then quench it.
I hope this helps. If i said anything incorrect hopefully some of the pros will get on here and correct me. My method of doing it is based on a lot of reading, talking to blade makers and trial and error. Don't be afraid to ask questions!!
Luke
 
blademan,
If the blade is being done by stock removal rather than forging, you can skip the normalizing step. Since you will be using the Paragon, you won't have to deal with the magnet to test the steel for austenitic (non-magnetic) state either. Heat to 1475 degrees F. and quench. 1095 is a basic carbon steel with no significant alloying elements, so you won't need a preheat or soak time for blade sized pieces. On the draw (temper) I'd suggest going a little higher than 350 degrees F. and the straw color. That would be quite hard, but would be subject to chipping if the edge is delicate and the blade is used for anything other than skinning or simple cutting chores. On both 1095 and 1084 I'd suggest starting out at about 400 - 425 degrees F. and look for a bit of peacock (purple) color. I like to do multiple draws at 1 - 2 hours each. The edge should be tough enough to hack a pine knot out of a 2x4 and still shave hair. There will be mixed opinions on this, but that's the method I use and it works for me. I brutally test each blade after heat treating.
 
blademan,
Here's an example of one of my tests as mentioned in the post above. Before any of my blades get a guard or handle, they must be able to stand up to hacking a pine knot and still shave hair. The blade is pictured is from 1084, which is quite similar to 1095.

<img src="edgetst2.jpg" width=348 height=234 hspace=5 vspace=2 border=0 align="bottom" alt="The Edge Test">
 
I'm sorry, let's try that again...

<img src="http://www.shreve.net/~primos/edgetst2.jpg" width=348 height=234 hspace=5 vspace=2 border=0 align="bottom" alt="The Edge Test">

 
Thanks guys. While I am going the stock removal route first I'll give your method a try primos. But thanks to you also Lukers, as me and a buddy are toying with the forge idea also.

------------------
It's only a mistake if you fail to learn from it!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top