The long slicer curved along the spine a bit too much after I normalized it, but back in the forge it goes. The big pipe in there is for critical temp later on. It's kind of like an oven inside an oven. More even heating, less muck on the steel.
Adjusting the curve...
I think that's good. Then for normalization again. I am judging by eye. Really though, I'm guessing. It's bright out, and I'm inexperienced. My thought process was, "Get it as close as I can to what I think critical temp is. It's probably a dull red in this lighting."
My heat treating set-up. Brine to the left of the forge, and the extra anvil to the left of that is for warp adjustments before Ms.
I later moved the brine set-up to a dim area so I can see the colors better. Couldn't see anything here.
Getting to critical (or what I think is critical).
Clamping down in a warm area (after quench) for Ms --> Mf.
A little doohickey I devised so I don't have to fumble around with the tongs. Works especially well if I need to adjust where the blade has to go (the heat area is a bit small). I modified it right after so I can use it at long distances.
So the heat treating didn't go that well to be honest. I was playing a guessing game, trying to do a martempering process that I didn't quite understand. I learned a lot in the process, however. I get a much harder blade if I leave it in the quench for half a second longer than what I was doing. Most of all, I do a much better job when I'm not rushing to get things completed. I should leave heat treating for when I'm in a level-headed mood. I ended up with areas of the edge not quite hardened, and most of the blade warping (thinking I could straighten later during the temper).
So I come home with shoddy hardened blades, with clamps and a straight piece of metal (relatively straight). Put it in the oven, and 30 minutes later the whole house stinks; it was probably the paint on the clamps. So I have to use the grill now, which has no temperature gauge. I followed advice from Rich Hale to use the tempering colors as a guide (used a separate piece of metal, since the blades had all the scale on them). First temper didn't straighten out the blades, so I stuck them in there again with the flame slightly hotter; just a notch. Weather around the area got colder, so the grill isn't as hot. I turn it up juuuust another notch. Check back and the temper color is now a dull purple. Overheated. Not even straight either.
Looks like I have to go back and treat them again, this time doing it properly. Kind of glad that I messed up the temper, or else the heat treat would have been very, very, mediocre. Just bad. Also irritated that I didn't get any real progress done today, but on the same thought train, I did learn a heckofalot. I just have to learn my lesson not to rush things; I never seem to learn it.
Here they are, taken out of the grill, still clamped.
You can slightly see the hint of purple where I file-checked earlier. The scrap piece of metal I was using to gauge temperature was full purple.
Thanks for looking.
So it's going to be a small slicer.
! ). Anyway, great work so far and thanks for posting so many pictures! I'm attempting my first couple kitchen knives right now and have been very intimidated thus far but I haven't ruined them yet! (key word = yet)
