Best Heat Treatment Shop to use?

G

Greebe

Joined
Aug 2, 2009
Messages
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I have been heat treating my blades and hawks in my own shop, but was thinking of sending them out to save some time and get a better quality heat treatment than I can do in house. Do you guys have any suggestions of a good heat treatment shop with good prices? I have seen people using Peters Heat Treat Inc. How are they? Prices? Any others to look into?

Thanks
Greebe
 
Paul Bos is the name I hear tossed around here most, but if I remember right he retired and sold the business to one of his employees and passed on all his secrets so the work is still top notch. I use Rob from knifemaker.ca and love the work he does, but the border and postal strike may be a bit much to deal with right now for you.
 
I use Peters for all my Stainless blades. I talked with them at blade and they are talking about doing simple steels also. The trick to Peters is send as many blades as you can. You can have 22lbs of blades done for the same prive you can have 5 done. The do excellent work. I have sent ATS34 blades that were ground and finished to the point of ready to be sharpened Edge of .0010 to .0015 never got one back warped. Give them a call. Great people to work with.
 
BIG plus one for Peters'. Brad is the man in charge of their cutlery division and I can't recommend him enough. He's done CPM-154, CPM-3V, CTS-XHP, 440C, O1 and 1084 blades for me and they all came back great, no warps, super clean. Peters' is the only big shop in the USA that will do oil-hardening steels, that I know of.

As A. Sharpe says, the more you send at once the better the deal gets. 20# is a lot of blades! You can mix and match within reason, if they are in the same temp range for hardening and tempering, they'll be invoiced together; if not there may be a small extra charge. Cryo and Rc testing of each blade are included. (Brad once saved my bacon by noticing one blade didn't come out hard enough, turns out I got a piece of 416 mixed in with my 440C. Sure glad he caught it, not a pissed-off customer! :eek:). They will also do media blasting, black oxide coating and even clay-quenching for an additional charge, I haven't tried them for any of those services.

I hear the Bos shop is still doing excellent work and a lot of people like Rob from knifemaker.ca as well :thumbup:
 
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I have always used BOS for my stainless and have been nothing but happy. Just remember, they ONLY do what is considered "Air Hardening" steels. No 1084, 1095, etc.

I have heard nothing but good about Peter's Heat Treat. I met Brad at the Blade show and he is a super nice guy.

Robert
 
I use Texas Knifemakers Supply TKS heat treating service.They are air harden only also.The work has come back super clean and fast.Reasonable prices too @ about $5.00 per blade.Ive heard nothing but good from Peters and BOS also of course.
 
Another +1 for both Peter's and Paul Bos. I primarily use Peter's because they're closer, but I've had excellent results from both companies. Great people to work with as well!
 
I have used Bos for my ATS-34 blades for 31 years. Great service and great heat treating service.
 
I HT almost all of my own, but I found that Bos was great for stainless and D2. They came back clean and straight. The price was pretty good, too.
 
Peter's!! Excellent quality at a great price.
 
I have only used a HT service once. A group of us on another forum recently did a group of knives for deployed servicemembers and Brad from Peter's donated the HT service for all 40 blades. The service was prompt and communication was excellent.

I had the opportunity to meet Brad at BLADE and can't speak highly enough of him as an individual. In all, I would say I spent well over two hours speaking to him over the weekend and I honestly feel that he is a limitless resource of valuable information for anyone intersted in the HT of knives. Brad really borke things down and explained exactly how he does things and even shared some of his trouble shooting/correction process for me. Peter's will deffinately have my business in the future.
 
Thanks for all the responses. So for everyone who says Peters is a good one, what is the price?

Thanks
Greebe
 
Didn't the link work? Here's their policy from the website, it wouldn't hurt to call and check... I generally send in 15-25 blades at a time and it runs about $90 with return shipping.

How much will it cost to have my knives heat treated?
The 1st (4) blades are $18/ea. The (4) blade cost of $72 covers up to 20# of blades. This includes a cryo treatment during processing. The blades must be of the same steel or steels that can be hardened & tempered together.
Steels that can be hardened together but need to be tempered separately are an additional $10. Return shipping & handling are extra. A handling charge of $7/ package is added for return shipping. Blades longer than 20” are quoted separately. Sandblasting is a $20 minimum charge. Black oxide is a $30 minimum charge. Clay treating for a hamon line is a $10 minimum charge/ blade or higher, depending on blade length.
Click to expand...

If you only have a couple stainless blades, TKS may be the best bet.
 
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I've been using Peter's more and more, they've done a lot of work for me over the last year. I feel they go above and beyond. Brad is a super nice guy.

But, nice guys, fast service, reasonable pricing and good communication is all well and good, but the primary reason I use Peter's is the quality of their work.
 
Peter's has done approx 750 pieces of 1075, W1, and 1045 for me over the past 2 years. Only once did I have a (minor) problem; Brad took care of it completely. Their ability to keep my items straight is the #1 attraction. The communication, pricing, and quality are great. They do black oxide for me as well.

Also, I think return shipping is another factor. My laser cutter throws my blanks is a cardboard box, stuffs some newspaper in and ships it. After receiving the fourth box that literally had knives poking out the sides, I finally decided to make the drive to pick-up. Peters, on the other hand, isn't stingy with the strapping tape, stretch wrap etc, which is especially important for me because my throwers are done and ready-for-sale when they come back.
 
Peters sound like a good bet. Right now getting started though $18 a knife seems pretty high.

How is the quality of Texas Knifemakers Supply? I notice that they charge only $5.50 per blade. I guess they only do air quench steels though.

Thanks
Greebe
 
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