Chef Utility Blade 52100

samuraistuart

samuraistuart

Joined
Dec 21, 2006
Messages
3,158
This knife was just finished this past weekend, and I'm calling it the "CUB". Chef's Utility Blade. Made from 52100 and gorgeous quilted maple and purple heart. New heat treatment protocol I am using on 52100 these days: Following normalizing and then thermal cycling 3x, I have added a DET annealing process (divorced eutectoid transformation) which re-spheriodizes the carbides after the normalizing and cycling. Raised the austenitizing temp from 1475°F to 1525°F (15 minute soak). Quenched in Parks 50 and then sub zero quench with dry ice slurry down to -100°F. 3 2 hour tempers @ 300F for a final hardness of ~64-65HRC. Blade was hand rubbed to a true 800 grit, and the handle to 1200 grit. Watco Danish oil for penetration, and then TruOil for the finish. It's a good looking blade, and with that thin grind, it shouldn't ever need thinning. Thanks for looking! I'm a little proud of this one. I hope it gets a blue ribbon and maybe a gold star!

cUTnx2F.jpg


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I guess I should add that the knife hasn’t been sharpened yet. That is the geometry prior to sharpening.
 
Any chance I can get your normalizing and thermal cycling temps and times??
Thanks for sharing!!
 
Sure. This was Aldo's 52100 (New Jersey Steel Baron), so it's heavily spheroidized as received and needs a good hot normalizing.
Normalize: 1700°F 30 minutes, air cool
Thermal cycle 3x: 1500°F (15 minutes on the first cycle, 10 on the second, 5 on the third), air cool
DET anneal: 1475°F for 30 minutes, then cool down to 1250°F at roughly 666°F per hour, then air cool.
Austenitize: 1525°F 10 minute soak
Quench: Parks 50 fast oil, immediately into sub zero (-100°F) for an hour
Temper: 300°F 2 hours 3x
 
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