Beginners question.

Joined
Feb 15, 2011
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99
I've only made a few knives and those with just the basic garage tools and limited knowledge of steels and HT.

The first 2 that I made were from a file. I just cut it to length and then ground it to shape. After doing a little more reading I found that the file would be brittle and prone to breaking. I read that it should be tempered in a oven at 400 degrees for 2 one hour heating and cooling cycles. I did that and then finished the knife.

The question I have is that OK or should a knife like that be HT also? The way it is it doesn't matter much for those 2 knives but I have more files :)
 
Files are heat treated and left very hard. When you tempered the file you made it softer and suitable for use as a knife. You don't need to heat treat it again.
 
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