Diff. heat treating ATS 34?

T

TroyO

Joined
Mar 20, 2001
Messages
71
Can you differentially heat treat ATS 34? I am working on my first knife, and was going to heat the edge up with an Oxy/Mapp and a Mapp torch going at the same time, then hold it in front of a fan on a chilly day (I live in CO, we are still getting those).

Will that work, or am I wrong about how ATS 34 reacts?

The reason I ask is a comment on a site about fileworking before heat treat if you are using a stainless steel. I was wondering if maybe you can't do a differential heat treat on stainless?

Any help appreciated, as always. :-)

 
Troy,

I have never used ats-34..BUT from what I have been told It along with most of the newer hi-tech Stainless steels can't be differentially heat-treated,
I believe you will have the best results with that steel if you have it heat-treated by a professionial.
Do a searh of the archive and I'm sure you will find someone who is willing to do this for you.

Hope this helps some



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Eric Elson

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TroyO,

I may be wrong but I doubt that those torches will do the job. However, I have heard from Paul Bos himself and he says that you can differentially heat treat ATS-34. I am also sure that Jerry Hossom has had a couple of his swords done this way. Paul and Jerry are the people to ask. They will probably be more than helpfull.

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Barry
Jones Knives
"NEW Knives"
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Curly, Moe, & Larry
 
There is a guy down on the gulf coast of Texas that will differentially heat treat SS,he advertises in Knife World,in the classifieds.

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MIKE

[This message has been edited by MIHKNIVES (edited 04-23-2001).]

[This message has been edited by MIHKNIVES (edited 04-23-2001).]
 
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by BARRY JONES:
TroyO,

However, I have heard from Paul Bos himself and he says that you can differentially heat treat ATS-34. I am also sure that Jerry Hossom has had a couple of his swords done this way. Paul and Jerry are the people to ask. They will probably be more than helpfull.
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Click to expand...

TroyO, if you get some details from Paul & Jerry, would be most interested if you could summarize and post what they tell you.

I seem to vaguely remember reading a blurb on how Paul did it ... seemed like the blades were fully heat treated, then he put the cutting edges (bottom half of blade) in a trough with flowing coolant of some kind and heated the spines (drew them back some), but don't know if it was stated as to how he heated spines. (Or did I just dream/imagine all that?)
 
I asked Paul Bos about that on a thread once. He said that he has diff. heat treated ATS-34 before, but he told me that he wasn't interested in doing it again, at least at that time. I imagine diff. heat treating stainless is a little trickier than 1095!

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"Come What May..."
 
Guys I would be glad to share with you how we Diff. heat treat St\ Stl. Not being a great typest it would probubley take me all day to explain it to you, But if one of you would give me a call I could tell you and you could share it on the forum. Call after 5:00 P.M. P.S.T. during the week (619)445-4740. Thank You Paul.
 
Hey!!! That is great news! Thanks Paul!

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"Come What May..."
 
Paul: Has anyone called you yet? If no one has, I'll give you a call and report back. I've sent the few blades i've made out for heat treating so someone who has had some experience would probably be better to chat with you about your technique. Hmm... Then again, who better to learn about heat treating from than Paul Bos!!!

Lemme know if someone has called you yet or not. If not, I'll chat with ya.

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"Come What May..."
 
Wow, so many replies, and one from the heat treat master himself! (And a comment from the Mayo-nator too!)
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I love this forum, being able to get help at such a newbie stage from so many experienced minds is just unbelievable.
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Crayola, you are right that someone with experience would be better to make that call, I would probably be lost after 2 sentances...

For me, I think the short answer is "Get Paul Bos to heat treat yours".

Hehehe, if I can even get the thing done... metal cutting jig saws just aren't much help. (That or the cheap blades I have just can't cut anything.) I just got a drill press so I am going to try the perimiter drilling method and see how it goes.
 
Troy, how are you grinding the bevels? You can shape to profile with a belt sander and coarse files. Or use a hacksaw and files. Or a dremel with cut off wheel.
 
Crayola: Best wait till next week, Ive got some sort of Flu voice has been gone for two days now.Paul.
 
I am using a couple of methods... I am using a hacksaw to cut out the profile. I tried an electric jigsaw but it just insta-destructs the blades. I am going to run by Home Depot today and get the best blades I can and see if they work.. what I have now was a metal cutting blade in a 5 piece multi-pack that was $2.99. If that works, well and good.. if not I am going to drill holes all around the perimiter and "connect the dots". A dremel sounds interesting too, but I would have to wait for cash flow to improve.

Then, even up the cut with a bench grinder or 6" disk/4"X36" belt sander to get a smooth outline.

Mark edge centerline and bevel limits and start filing away. My plan of attack is to file the plunge cut first, then use a draw file method from the area by the plunge to the tip and try to match the draw filing to the straight filing at the plunge.

Then, I move to smoother files, and finally finish files.

Grind the flats and bevels on a big coarse wetstone, then the finer wetstone side.

Move on to a 180 grit belt, then 220, 320. Then I send it to Paul.
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Clean up after heat treat w/320-400 Grit on the belt being careful not to overheat.

Hand sand from 500, 800, 1200 then polish on my buffing wheel.

Drill, fit and pin dovetailed bolsters.

Ohhhh... this brings me to another dumb question... do I have to make and drill my bolsters prior to heat treat? Do I pin them in before or after heat treat? In other words, can (And should) the blade be heat treated with the bolsters already on? Normally I think you do this after, but will a commercial heat treater usually harden an entire stainless blade, meaning the tang area will be hardened also?

Match the wood to the dovetail on the bolsters (IE, same angle on disk sander), drill then epoxy and pin. Shape handle to suit, seal and sand to 1200 grit then polish that. Another silly question, do you use different compunds when polishing the wood handles?

Then I take pictures and post them here so everyone else will know how NOT to make thier first knife...
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Wow, that ended up quite the long post... if I am missing anything let me know. :-)
 
Paul: I'll e-mail you tuesday then, to give you time to get over the flu.

That will give me time to brush up on heat treating methods as well, so that I can say more than, "OOHH! AHHHH! So that's how it's done!! Really?? Can you repeat that??"

smile.gif


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"Come What May..."
 
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