desired hardness for my first knife???

T

Tim Greenfield

Joined
Jul 26, 2011
Messages
5
I am a new to this forum, I have been reading threads for a month or two....and having collected knives for a few years, I have been wanting to try my hand at making a knife or two. I have read the "how to" instructions offerd by bladsmth. what a fantastic article...very well thought out, and easy to follow.
Ok ...well here's where I need my first bit of help....my knife design is for hunting....the material is D 2 and is .200 thick ..I am planning on hollow gringing the edge......looks sorta like a SOG seal pup....with a wider blade.
what would you suggest for heat treat hardness??? I am not planning on doing this HT myself, but taking it to an industrial heat treat company,we use at work for items needed..
I would guess the knife would be used for deer hunting...field dressing chores
any help is appreciated......thank-you

Tim
 
Shoot for 60-61HRC for D2 for a hunting knife. IMO, either go for a triple temper or a double temper with cryo.
 
I appreciate your help....I did check with the heatreat company and they get a minimum of $125.00 for any cryo portion and their sub was -320 degrees....
this is too much money for this project....it would take all the fun out of it if I had that much money in this. not that I don't take pride in my work...its just that this is not going to be an option. I guess the regular heattreat will have to suffice....they get $.95 per lb for regular ht on D2..
thank-you for your help ..I will go for the 61RC
Tim
 
You can mail it to Texas Knifemakers Supply - they do heat treating of air hardening steels and they don't have a minimum order - very reasonable prices even for a single blade - cryo only adds a few bucks. See: http://www.texasknife.com/vcom/privacy.php#services

They normally heat treat standard to 58-59HRC (which would be fine for D2, just not quite optimum) and do a double temper standard (cryo extra). You can ask them about getting 60-61HRC instead.
 
thankyou for the options....I actually had 6 knives water jetted out and was going to do these as gifts for christmas.....and thought I should do 1 completely through first ...before I screwed up all six. so I can write this information down and give him a call when i get the rest ready for ht.
Thank-you for the information..
I am anxious to start grinding again, but the hollow grinding has me worried, that I will mess them up......I will just have to go slowly....thanks again!
Tim
 
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