clay tempering

[Mike Davis]

does any one have any advice on my first clay tempering foray? im working on a 4" o-1 folder blade. any advice is greatly appreciated.thank you

 

[Dave Kelly]

Hi Mike, one suggestion imho is to keep the clay away from the pivot area, tang area and detent ball travel area if it's a liner lock.
Dave

 

[bullet101]

What Dave said. And even if it's a lockback, it's always better to harden the tang area, since you don't want much wear in your pivot area that would cause bladeplay in the long run.

And don't forget to drill your detent hole, happened to me once and now I always make sure to check if I actually drilled it.

Here's a pic of a differentialy hardened O-1 blade. That's what you are likely to end up with if everything works well:

Pic is by Kevin Wilkins.

If you are not that lucky you probably won't see much of a hardening line.
You should also not get to wild in painting the clay on. The more details, the bigger the risk of getting not proper hardening line at all.

In your next attempt to greate a hamon you should go for the 10xx series of steels.

Regards Marcus

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

All good advise above.Apply the clay to the blade with enough thickness to hold the heat under the clay.With a folder blade there is not much thermal mass to keep it hot.Use a fast quench oil.Quench the blade edge down. Into the quench-2-3 out -2-3-4-5- back in till completely cooled.Clean off the remaining clay,wash off the blade,temper at 400 for 1-2 hours twice.For a folder hamon I would try a 10XX steel as Marcus suggested.1095 has a very sharp nose to the quench/time curve.It can produce a good hamon in thin sections on small blades.BTW - it is called a clay coated,clay hardened, or clay quenched blade - not clay tempered.By the time it gets to tempering the clay is long gone.
Stacy

 

[Airborne Steel]

I found this tutorial by Randy Skidmore a while back, I haven't tried it yet, but I am right at that point. I hope it helps.

http://p222.ezboard.com/fprimalfiresfrm19.showMessage?topicID=605.topic

 

[Mike Davis]

i just want to express my thanks to everyone for being so helpful. this is only my second knife and i wanted to get involved with people who had more experience in this sort of thing.once again you all have my thanks for your advice
mike

p.s. bullet that knife is beautiful!