Did I ruin my knife?

smitty0331

smitty0331

Joined
Dec 5, 2006
Messages
892
I'm making a knife that looks strikingly similar to a Tom Brown tracker out of O1. For those not familiar to it, it's basicly a small, chopper that reminds you of a woodsmans pal, only smaller. My question is this. This is to date the most difficult knife I'v made so far. I thought I had all my ducks in a row till it was time to quench. I immediatly realized that the pan I use to keep my heated oil in was too small for the knife, so i thrust just the blade in. The cutting edge got hard, the back of the blade, which has saw teeth, was questionable, and the handle was soft. This morning I re-ht'd it with a container that was large enough and the cutting edge is hard, the backside of the blade is good, but the handle end is still soft. I'm tempering it right now. Does anyone know why the handle end didn't get hard this time? Do you guys think I should worry about it as long as the blade got hard?
 
Couple of reasons that I can think of about the handle/tang being soft.

It didn't get fully soaked at critical temp like the blade due to the extra mass.

It cooled off before you got it in the quench.

I wouldn't worry about the handle/tang being soft unless you really need the tang to be 50ish RC?
 
Will Leavitt said:
Couple of reasons that I can think of about the handle/tang being soft.

It didn't get fully soaked at critical temp like the blade due to the extra mass.

It cooled off before you got it in the quench.

I wouldn't worry about the handle/tang being soft unless you really need the tang to be 50ish RC?
Click to expand...

What Will said in his first reason. It wouldnt have cooled off before the thinner blade. It just didnt soak long enough to reach critical temp.
 
I never quench my tangs on my knives. I heat treat the the blade only. I Only quench to handle. Should I rethink this. I only make full tang knives.
 
What did you pick it out of the forge/oven with? Was that thing warm or cold when you grabbed the knife? I'm guessing that if you grabbed the tang with a cold object that could've removed enough heat before the quench to prevent full hardness. I'm just shooting in the dark though.
 
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