Can you send a production knife in to be heat treated?

K

KennyB

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Jan 19, 2010
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So let's say for example with my ESEE Izula. Lot of people think that 57 HRC isn't really hard enough. So maybe I'd like to see what an Izula at 62 HRC would be like...

Couldn't I strip it and then send it in to one of the heat treating services available to have it HT'd to 62? It wouldn't be any different than sending in a custom work piece right?
 
KennyB said:
So let's say for example with my ESEE Izula. Lot of people think that 57 HRC isn't really hard enough. So maybe I'd like to see what an Izula at 62 HRC would be like...
Couldn't I strip it and then send it in to one of the heat treating services available to have it HT'd to 62?
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Of cause you can. Not always it's make a sense. You need to do a homework. learn about the knife and the steel. Any decent maker have a design intend and choosing steel and heat-treatment accordingly. Also not every steel can be heat-treated to certain Rc and even if it can, no necessary that it will have optimum performance at this Rc. Higher Rc is not always better.
 
bh49 said:
Of cause you can. Not always it's make a sense. You need to do a homework. learn about the knife and the steel. Any decent maker have a design intend and choosing steel and heat-treatment accordingly. Also not every steel can be heat-treated to certain Rc and even if it can, no necessary that it will have optimum performance at this Rc. Higher Rc is not always better.
Click to expand...

I've researched heat treating a little bit and understand what you're saying, but I'm speaking more about logistical/practical limitations rather than technical...

For example, isn't there a minimum workload that some services will accept? Not sure if sending in a single blade is acceptable. Perhaps I should ask in the makers section...
 
KennyB said:
I've researched heat treating a little bit and understand what you're saying, but I'm speaking more about logistical/practical limitations rather than technical...

For example, isn't there a minimum workload that some services will accept? Not sure if sending in a single blade is acceptable. Perhaps I should ask in the makers section...
Click to expand...

peter's heat treating inc: http://www.petersheattreat.com/cutlery.html

paul bos heat treating (idaho): http://www.buckknives.com/index.cfm?event=bio.paulBos#
 
I sent a single blade in to Paul Bos. Order size is not important. You would pay less per blade for a large order, but that's about the only difference.
 
Some steels have issues with being hardened more than once, especially if the heat treater thinks they are annealed. 1095 isn't one of them though. Were I to reheat treat something like an Izula, it would be radically different from its original form, but thats just me.
 
Cool, was just popped into my head that I wished I could see what an Izula at higher hardness would be like. Then I thought "Why can't I?"
 
Most heat treaters won't re heat treat a knife as there is too great a chance of something happening like warpage, etc. We've had examples of blades from knives like sebbies getting ruined by re heat treating them just to get higher hardness levels.

Good luck

Joe
 
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