Bad heat treat?

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Kevin Kf knives

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This is a 1095, copper, 1095 san mai billet I got from a cool guy in Instagram. I put it in my oven, 1475 soak for 10 minutes, and quench in Parks 50, all before grinding the bevels. So, long story short, after hours of hand sanding, I go to etch in 4 to 1 ferric acid, this is what it looks like.

Should I re heat treat? I don't have a hardness tester.

Thanks
 
Interesting.

Any idea of hardness? Does look like you have differing zones of hardening?

Sounds like you quenched full thickness, and ground the bevels post heat treat?

Might try a reheat and quench now that it is ground?
 
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I'm "assuming" you did a temper after the quench? Why would you think you need to re-heat treat? Is it really soft per file dragging across the edge or spine? How did you grind the bevel in? It does look like the flats still need cleaning up some from HT.
 
That looks like it could be decab layer still on part of the the blade?
 
looks like decarb on there still....that dion damascus is 1095 core but the outer layer i a weird mix of damascus , how does the edge cut?
 
It is diamond Damascus, I heat treated at full thickness. I left the surface as from factory, the cross hatching, I wanted to see how it looked textured, not necessarily like forging Mark's, but like that. Tempering was 2, two hours in the toaster oven at 350, the file seems to skate on the spine. The blotchy etching has me concerned that it's not heat treated properly.

Edit, the darker spot in the middle seems to be a little softer. Would it be a good idea to put it back in the heat treat oven again, requench?
 
I just had some 1095 that refused to heat treat. It was in the oven 8 times and I finely got it to harden.
#1 1475° heat treat = fail 30-35rc, #2 1650° normalize, #3 1475° = fail 30-35rc, #4 1900° soak and air cool, #5 1650° soak & air cool, #6 1500° soak/air cool, #7 1350° soak/air cool, #8 1475° heat treat = success 65-66rc.

I would not heat that steel to 1900 as that’s getting rather close to the melting temp of copper.
 
How much is that basically finished is important ....Bacon edge is worse thing can happen when HT Knife .
 
Natlek said:
How much is that basically finished is important ....Bacon edge is worse thing can happen when HT Knife .
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Copy, I guess its basically not going to be a functional knife at this point. I figure I'll give it another shot at heat treat, if its garbage, I have time to make another.
 
I have seen that effect when a person uses thin nickel to separate layers in san-mai. Chris Marks used it a lot.
 
did you heat treat it partially ground? i think its decarb my man....how much did you grind after heat treat?
 
timos- said:
did you heat treat it partially ground? i think its decarb my man....how much did you grind after heat treat?
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Nope, heat treat then ground the bevels. I think this guy is going to look really nice, performance wise will be crap. I'll order another billet tomorrow and give it another shot. Sucks to be honest. A lady ordered it for her husband as a Christmas gift, thank God I didn't wait till last minute to start it.

Thank you to everyone that chimed in. I think I got the 1095 heat treat from someone here, 1475 for 10 minutes, immediately in parks 50. Anyone have a different recipe?
 
Kevin Kf knives said:
Copy, I guess its basically not going to be a functional knife at this point. I figure I'll give it another shot at heat treat, if its garbage, I have time to make another.
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If file skate on the spine ,why you not sharpen it and see what s going on ? Hardened steel etch dark gray .....that bright would be nickel then ??? IF core was 1095 what is on outside? 1095 core then -nickel-copper-nickel and what ?
 
Natlek said:
If file skate on the spine ,why you not sharpen it and see what s going on ? Hardened steel etch dark gray .....that bright would be nickel then ??? IF core was 1095 what is on outside? 1095 core then -nickel-copper-nickel and what ?
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It's supposed to be 1095, copper/nickel, 1095.
 
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