Camillus Bowie Blank HELP!!

J

jfirack

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Nov 6, 2006
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Greetings! I have a question for the grinding experts here. I have a OVB camillus Bowie blank that I have recently used a belt sander and hand files on and have finally finished into a decent looking blade. Now... should I harden and then temper the blade or is this not needed? My brother has some experience with both these procedures from doing some blade forging on his own but neither of us has any experience with blade blanks. Any and all help with this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Jason:o
 
I'm new at this but will try to answer. If it filed easily it does need to be heat treated.The thing is though that it shouldn't have a finished edge before heat treat.The edge needs to be close to the thickness of a dime and then ground sharp after heat treat.

If I am wrong guys don't hesitate to correct me.
 
It is probably going to need to be hardened. What type of steel, specifically, is the blank? You have to know that in order to know how to heat treat the knife. Stainless steels heat treat much differently than most carbon steels.

--nathan
 
Did you put main grind on the blank? I mean was it flat beforhead?
If yes, then I think you should think about hardening and tempering.

If the blad HAD main grind before, than it is hardened by Camillus, and it will work very good. I have Camillus OVB (Crowell model) and it's quite soft, but still holds and edge.
 
Looking on the internet seems like the blank was already ground into a blade, I am assuming you changed the shape a bit to meet you needs. The blank would have been heat treated and ready to sharpen, if you did not discolor the edge during your grinding it will not need to be heat treated.
 
Thanks for the help. I believe the blade is carbon steel because it will show a rust spot at fingerprints left on blade for a short amount of time. When I got the blank it was in the general shape of a knife but with no edge whatsoever. it was about 1/4 " thick all the way around. It didn't seem to change color while I was grinding it. It did seem to be much softer after I ground it than before. I tried a hand file on it before I ground it and had limited success. After I had ground it, a hand file made some major changes to the blade, almost like I had reached a softer layer of steel? (I don't know just guessing). Any more help or pointers would be appreciated.
 
Camillus Bowie's were usually 1095
The blank was harder to file when you first got it from work hardening.
It needs a full heat treat and tempering.
 
jfirack said:
I have a OVB camillus Bowie blank that I have recently used a belt sander and hand files on

Jason:o
Click to expand...

If your cutting it with a file then it has probably not been heat treated yet.
If it has been heat treated and your cutting it with a file then it needs to be redone properly
 
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