Bay Area bladesmiths - anyone use Edwards HT?

B

Bndst

Joined
Dec 26, 2011
Messages
4
Hey all,

I'm pretty new here and just about to embark on knife number 1. I've done a fair bit of homework to get to where I'm at: read as much as I can find on BF, got through all but the damascus chapters (skipped those since making it is out of the question for me) in Goddard's book, read and watched every tutorial I could find on the interwebs and sketched more blades than I could probably build in 2 years. My box arrived from Texas Knife the other day so now its time to start cutting and filing! Exciting stuff.

Anyways, my question is this: I don't have the luxury of being able to heat treat in my garage, so I'm forced to job that out. I know and have looked at Texas Knife (since its where I ordered the supplies for my first attempt), but a google search led me to discover Edwards Heat Treating in San Leandro, CA. I live in Oakland, so this is a lot closer and more convenient than Texas...has anyone had experience with them; know if they HT knives; and average cost you've found dealing with them?

I'm going to send them an email anyways requesting info in the meantime, but I wanted to reach out to you folks first and see if anyone local has had any experience good or bad with them or has any other suggestions for Bay Area HTers? Or are my blades gonna all have to take a road trip to TX until I man up and build a forge?!

Thanks for your time
-Chris
 
Hey Chris,
Welcome to the forum!

I know a few guys in the tool industry who have recommended Edwards to me in the past. They all seemed to think that they were solid folks over there. I'm just down HWY 80 in Pinole/Hercules. I'm also aware of Pacific steel, but just saw in the paper a couple weeks ago that they lost well over 200 employees in an immigration sting, who knows if it's affected their turnaround........

When I first started I was recommended Peters in Pennsylvania. They have a dedicated cutlery department that's run by Brad Stalsmith, who is a hell of a good guy and really knowledgeable about all kinds of steels. They've done such a good job for me that I haven't even looked into the local guys here in the Bay.

EDIT: WHOOPS! That was Pacific Steel, also here in the bay area that got hit by immigration and lost all of the workers....NOT Pacific Heat Treat. They may be connected but I don't know that one way or the other so can't comment on it. Sorry.
 
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I have never used Edwards for blades (I did send them some tooling from work & was happy). I did speak to them a few years ago about blades: like most shops not doing soley blades their single blade fee was a "lot" charge. IF I remember correctly it was around $75.
 
Welcome Chris! I am also interested in good local heat treaters. I know a few really good machine shops with heat treat capabilities, but haven't spoken to them about blades.

I lived in Oaksterdam for a while some years ago, over on the downtown side of the lake between 14th and 17th. Great place.

Oh, and don't forget to post pics of your progress.


-Xander
 
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