13 Myths about Heat Treating Knives

[Larrin]

A new article about various heat treating myths, covering things like the effect of heat treatment on knife performance, whether industry heat treatments are relative to knives, cryogenic processing, and heat treating simple carbon steels vs high alloy and stainless steels. https://knifesteelnerds.com/2020/07/13/13-myths-about-heat-treating-knives/

 

[Scaniaman]

I really enjoyed reading this. Thanks a lot!

 

[TILLER]

Interesting article, thank you!

 

[Cliff Carter Knives]

Fantastic article, thank you!

 

[SBuzek]

Good article as usual.
Thanks for all you do to dispel the myths of knife making.

 

[Willie71]

I believed many of these myths, even up until recently. Great article.

 

[Drew Riley]

Great article Larrin. I've always gotten a chuckle out of those makers who claim a "super secret, proprietary heat treat recipe". Even better is when some sort of home brew "super quench" is involved. Bonus points if it uses some sort of meat based grease and used automotive fluids of some kind.

 

[DevinT]

I pretty sure this kind of thinking is what got Larrin interested in metallurgy in the first place.

Good stuff.

Hoss

 

[Cushing H.]

thank you, as always, Larrin!

 

[Tom Lewis]

Thanks for a great article. Blade Forum is much better because of your knowledge contributions.

 

[i4Marc]

Thanks Larrin, good article. You cleared up a lot of myths. But quenching oriented due north into a virgin's urine under a full moon, that shit is fo sho right?

 

[Jrmysell]

Thanks Larrin, good article. You cleared up a lot of myths. But quenching oriented due north into a virgin's urine under a full moon, that shit is fo sho right?

Yes it is

 

[Storm W]

Thanks Larrin, good article. You cleared up a lot of myths. But quenching oriented due north into a virgin's urine under a full moon, that shit is fo sho right?

I know thats real. That last knife I made didn't harden right though and I'm pretty sure that the virgin urine I got off of Ebay was fake. Do any of you guys know if there is a way to know for sure that you have real virgin urine so you don't get scammed? I'm going to try to contest the charge on my credit card since I'm almost positive that that urine was polluted with carnal sin

 

[tkroenlein]

Use your own.

 

[A.McPherson]

Use your own.

Hah! That's funny! Here's a question for ya, does.... Uhhh.. self stimulation count? Cause if so, I lost my virginity to myself at a pretty young age... Lol!

 

[Maelstrom78]

Thank you very much. Great article.

 

[Tenebr0s]

Larrin, as always, thank you for writing these.
Something I have always wondered (sort of academically) – if a forging is NOT normalized, but is given a lower temperature grain refining cycle/DET anneal, would it still have a fine grain (but with less evenly distributed carbon)?

Please don't take this question as "is it ok not to normalize?" I've just always wondered about this.

 

[PEU]

I always tell customers and colleagues that flexibility is not a function of hardness but of thickness and most of the times I get that face when someone is not sure to believe you... Now I have a place to send them so they can check by themselves. Thanks Larrin.

Here a 60RC O2 steel filleting knife bent 90 degrees.

Pablo

 

[Larrin]

Larrin, as always, thank you for writing these.
Something I have always wondered (sort of academically) – if a forging is NOT normalized, but is given a lower temperature grain refining cycle/DET anneal, would it still have a fine grain (but with less evenly distributed carbon)?

Please don't take this question as "is it ok not to normalize?" I've just always wondered about this.

Some steels can’t be normalized, so I would say probably yes in most cases.

 

[HSC ///]

Larrin, as always, thank you for writing these.
Something I have always wondered (sort of academically) – if a forging is NOT normalized, but is given a lower temperature grain refining cycle/DET anneal, would it still have a fine grain (but with less evenly distributed carbon)?

Please don't take this question as "is it ok not to normalize?" I've just always wondered about this.

Alex, isn’t this the case and process with steels like Hitachi white? Forging with descending heats towards the end