Differentially hardening folder blades

Chiro75

Chiro75

Joined
Feb 4, 1999
Messages
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I'm working on a balisong (well, not yet, but planning to at least) and need to know if and how much the pivot pin areas and the tang should be hardened. I plan on using 1084 and doing a clay heat treat. The 1084 seems to harden up quite a bit even in the clay coated areas, but I don't know if the pivot areas should be fully hardened or not.
 
Personally, I think the whole blade should be hardened. There are a lot of people that have never had a knife long enough to wear out the blade, but I have. I would not have like it if Case or Puma had did a differential hardening on the blades and my knife would have quit holding an edge. For the Cool look on a balisong, I would think that in any area that would reguire movement, it would need to be hard and polished. The hinge area of the handle should also be hardened.
If you are going to be using a high carbon steel, why not make it a damascus one for the super cool look. I have seen Chuck twirl them and they do look very good.
This is just some of my thoughts on balisongs and of noticing some deficiencies that have occured in the cheap one I bought a long time ago.
 
When I differentially harden blades you get a good 3/4", if not a full inch, of hardened edge area, so it would be pretty darn tough to wear the sucker down to a nub. And, in my way of thinking, if you buy one of my knives for a couple hundred bucks, you own it for 2 decades and eventually you wear it down to a toothpick size, then you got your money's worth and it's time to buy another one of my knives! :D

Or, send it back, I'll put a nice edge on their toothpick and harden the rest of it for them if they want! :D

This is a project for myself. I don't want Damascus, I want a clay heat treat and visible hamon as on a Japanese sword. That's my style and that's what I like personally. I suppose it would help to know the Rc of the "soft" area. I know the soft portions of my knives are still hard enough that you can't drill through them with HSS drill bits, so they aren't like annealed softness. Anyway, thanks for the input and when the project gets done keep your eyes open for pics.
 
When I think of pocket knives, balisongs, or other folding type knives, I think of a blade not wider than 1" and most times the blade would be closer to 3/4" wide. To me, that does not lend itself to differentially heat treating. I am a firm beliver in the differentially heat treat of fixed blades and that is my method also.
I was just explaining my take on folders being differentially heat treated and the areas that need to be hardened because of wear. Please do not take offense on your method of differentially heat treating. A lot of new makers and sometimes long time makers, do not harden but about 1/3 of the blade. If I were to use this as a guidline, then a pocket knife would not have much of the blade hardened. Any way, that was my thinking.
I hope I am here after the next 2 decades to warrenty all my knives. :)
 
Works for me and the whole pivot area is hard.
Steel is W1 but 1084 should work but I would put the clay on thick.

Don Hanson lll
 
Raker, thanks for the input! We'll see how it turns out when and if it turns out!

Hanson, AWESOME, AWESOME! Very nice looking knife! Wow!
 
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