AEB-L warping

S

skillgannon

Joined
Apr 27, 2009
Messages
991
This is my first set of ael-b blades. I guess it's reputation for warping is deserved. Everything was straight but the hollow grinding of the handle scales put a huge warp in the handle area. Is it possible to use local heating with a ppropane torch or is is it back to the oven. I only did a 300 Deg temper.
 
My understanding is that to redo the heat treat on AEB-L requires something like a 10 hour soak at a sub critical temp. if the warp is only in the tang area, you can try wrapping a wet towel around the ricasso area and locally heating the tang with a torch. have done this with success, but ONLY to straighten a stick tang, and then the only reason I gave it a try is because I was hot fitting the handle anyway.
 
kuraki said:
Put the blade in a vise. Heat the convex side, counterbend towards heat as it cools off. Or, clamp in a counter bend and temper again.
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It's my first time with stainless. I hoping to avoid the oven and hours of re temper. I just don't want screw up the knife. Just to be clear if I heat it with a torch say in a vise is there anything else I need to worry about?
 
Well yeah, worry about over heating, over bending, breaking. An hour in the oven is the safest bet. Torch and bend is the fastest but risky without some experience.
 
Ahh one of the many joys of working with AEB-L. Any uneven grinding post heat treat seems to cause massive warp even when kept nice and cool. When I was grinding my fillet blades I had to swap sides each pass or I would get massive warps, like 1/2 an inch to one side at the tip or more if one side was ground fully. I have had decent results straightening tangs in this steel with a torch and 3 point jig. If you are careful it can be done is way less time than overbending during additional temper cycles. I also grind a hollow in my tangs to allow for extra glue, and had better luck grinding the hollow before hardening rather than after. To be perfectly honest I just got sick of it and switched back to CPM154 and S35VN which have never given me issues.
 
Just do your corrective clamping and temper for another hour in the oven. It is the safest way to do it and you can go do other things while you wait.
 
i4Marc said:
Just do your corrective clamping and temper for another hour in the oven. It is the safest way to do it and you can go do other things while you wait.
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Yeah I kinda decided to go that way. I'm right in the middle of a kitchen remodel and didn't want to heat up the house. I should send you a pic. They blades are all turning out nice I up to 800 grit on most of them. I think the warp is coming from where I tried to use a large drill bit and it didn't go through but work hardened . The hollow for the scales was done very gently and it never even got warm.
 
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