Cleaning up HT'ed blades

3

30-30 Cal.

Joined
Jan 1, 2004
Messages
243
Hi guys,

I will be getting three blades back from Ht soon (my first), and I was wondering what is the best war to clean them up. Sanding? Rouge? I've even heard you can boil them. Also, one of the blades will have a hamon, what is the best way to bring it out?

Dave
 
You kinda have to take up where you left off.
If you sent them to HT with a 120 grit finish, start with that when you get them back, and work up to the desired finish.
There's just too many ways to go about the hamon thing, one would be to soak in ferric chloride for a few minutes, and then hand rub to the desired texture. But there's a hundred other ways also.:eek:
 
Once the blades return, they are going to be oxidized from the heat treatment. Likely it will require you to clean up the entire blade via sanding. Usually when blades are sent out for heat treating, they still have some final grinding to be done too. Although I do my own heat treating, I routinely heat treat before finish grinding. That means that after heat treating I go back to a 50 grit belt, and run through to my finish grits of 600-800. Then it's time to hand sand. Of course you have to be careful about letting the blade get hot....but that's not too big of a problem.
 
Dave, don't ruin a bunch of sandpaper or sanding belts grinding off that scale left from heat treating. Boil the blade in vinegar water after cleaning it good with hot soapy water and a scrub brush or 3M scrubby pad. Boil it for at least 20 minutes and that scale should just rub off with your fingers. If that doesn't do it, soak it in pure vinegar for a while just like etching blades in ferric chloride. Check it every now and then and when you can rub the scale off with your fingers just wash it up good with hot soapy water and a scrub brush or 3M scrubby pad. Then start your final finishing process. It took me years to figure that process out and it works very well. Try it, you'll like it. :D
 
As stated above, be careful when grinding on your heat treated blades not to get them very hot. Grind periodically and especially at the tip were it can heat very quickly. If it turns color from grinding chances are good you have compromised the heat treatment.

RL
 
well, we'll see what they look like when they come back next week, I was/am worried a bit because I went a bit crazy and practically sent in finished blades. If they come out alright, I don't think I will have to do any more grinding.

But, the next time I send some in, I will not finish them as much as I did these.

Thanks,

Dave
 
With a good pro doing your heat treating pre-finishing to about 400 grit should be okay. As stated previously, there will be discoloration that will need to be removed. Again as stated above, do that with the grit you finished with prior to shipping. On the other hand, and hope not, should there be decarburation you will need to drop down to about 120 grit. That should not be the case though.

RL
 
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