Blades are not straight

Are you grinding your blades? Filing to shape? Forging? Your methods make a lot of difference in the answer, but one thing that is fairly universal to the answer is the blade should be evenly shaped, with as few sharp angles as possible before the quench. Please tell us more about how you are creating your blades. What type of steel? What type of quench liquid? How hot is the blade before quench? How are you heating it? The more information you can give, the better people can help you.
 
Tell us more about your procedure and steel. Lots of guys here can help you but more info will be needed.
 
Im using a belt grinder for profile and my bevels. Im using 1095 right now. Im heating the blade with tourches (all I have) and quenching in motor oil. This may not be right but for now its all I have have. Thanks for the help.
 
There could be a number of reasons that the blades warp depending on your technique. These are the most common culprits:

Uneven grind, or ground too thin.
Uneven heat
Tilting blade to one side or the other when blade enters quenchant (one side cools slightly before the other).
 
Blades don't always come out straight. After the tempering, you can warm them up (or take them directly form the tempering) and straighten in a vice.

- Chris
 
Hesparus said:
Blades don't always come out straight. After the tempering, you can warm them up (or take them directly form the tempering) and straighten in a vice.

- Chris
Click to expand...

Its true that blades don't always come out straight but I don't suggest straightening in a vice during the temper. A much safer method is to quench the blade and once the oil stops boiling (600F-800F) remove it from the quench tank and straighten by hand while wearing some welding gloves. Most of the time I can get my blades to within .010" using this method. It works great but if your getting more than .030" of warp on a 7" blade you will need to find the source of your warp and correct it.

Also motor oil is too slow for good results with 1095. If you can't afford parks 50 switch to 5160.
 
If you are heat treating with a torch you are likely doing uneven heating, possibly holding the blade flat horizontal while it is soft which would cause gravitational droop (kind of like laying your blades flat on their side while they are in a kiln)

Dan is absolutely correct that motor oil is too slow for 1095, if you have a lot of 1095 and not much money get yourself a gallon or two of canola oil and heat it to 130f before quenching, it is far from ideal, but it will at least cool quickly enough that your blade is not approaching 100 percent pearlite. Parks 50 is even better but I will not turn this thread into oil wars again.

If you are using a torch for your heat source you really want 1084, since you will not be able to soak at temperature. Enter the oil point first vertically

-Page
 
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