Elmax

crocogator106

crocogator106

Joined
Nov 16, 2012
Messages
994
Any suggestions on sourcing 3/16 Elmax. USA Knifemaker does not have 3/16 and Alpha seems to be out or not selling it anymore. Also where would be a good place for heat treating? Thanks
 
Elmax is a truly amazing steel. My only problem with it is sourcing... it can be hard to find in the sizes you want.

Do NOT "cheap out" on having it HT'ed. We're talking about expensive steel with huge potential... Peters' does it right, and they will HT as few or as many blades as you want. :thumbup:
 
james terrio said:
Elmax is a truly amazing steel. My only problem with it is sourcing... it can be hard to find in the sizes you want.

Do NOT "cheap out" on having it HT'ed. We're talking about expensive steel with huge potential... Peters' does it right, and they will HT as few or as many blades as you want. :thumbup:
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I don't mind paying a fair price to have my blades heat treated and I guess Peter's do have fair prices its just they have a minimum charge (or last time I called them) of about $100.00. That's for 1 knife or up to 20 I think. I only need about 4 blades heat treated and I'm not paying $100.00 to heat treat 4 blades. I just want someone who will do a good job and only charge me for what I want done.
 
If Peter's has a "minimum" policy, they sure didn't tell me. About a year ago I sent two White Steel knives for them to heat treat. It was $25 per knife. Well worth it. AFAIK, Peter's charges $25 per knife. If you have 5 thru 20, they charge $110, IIRC. But 4 blades will cost you $100. I think that is a fair price to have Elmax MAXed out.....Brad knows what he is doing over there.
 
crocogator106 said:
I don't mind paying a fair price to have my blades heat treated and I guess Peter's do have fair prices its just they have a minimum charge (or last time I called them) of about $100.00. That's for 1 knife or up to 20 I think. I only need about 4 blades heat treated and I'm not paying $100.00 to heat treat 4 blades. I just want someone who will do a good job and only charge me for what I want done.
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You get what you pay for. Peters Heat Treating delivers excellent heat treating every time. IMO, $100 for to get excellent heat treating is a good value. That is why we send our blades to Peters.

Chuck
 
Don't rely on interwebz jibber-jabber or a half-vast memory of what you heard some time ago.... call Peters' and ask them. Ask to speak to Brad in the cutlery division.

I'm not real sure of their pricing structure for individual blades, simply because it's been a long dang time since I sent them a batch of less than a couple dozen blades. But I'm 100% confident that they will provide the very best hardening, tempering, cryo and Rc available at a very fair price.

Even if it is $25 per blade, which I highly doubt, what's that worth to you or your clients when you compare it to the best HT you can get? ;)
 
Yep, Peters is $27.50 each for 1-3, then much cheaper as you make more than 4. They really do great work though, and I had a number of stainless blades treated by them. In the end I ended up making my own oven so I could do a couple at a time. Of course, I still have to pick up $12 min order of dry ice, then figure $500 material cost for the oven so I think in about another 30 knives I will break even- well, not counting labor haha!
 
I guess you guys are probably right (as usual-lol). I guess I'll bite the bullet and send them to Peter's. If the steel was'nt Elmax I'd probably just have it done somewhere else but I want to make sure I get all the steels potential out of the heat treat. And I guess if you figure that Peter's includes Cryo and tempering I guess I'll send the blades to Peters. I'm a new maker and it just seems like alot of money or is alot of money for me anyway but I do want a quality product and 2 of the knives are mine and my sons:D.
 
StuNY said:
Yep, Peters is $27.50 each for 1-3, then much cheaper as you make more than 4. They really do great work though, and I had a number of stainless blades treated by them. In the end I ended up making my own oven so I could do a couple at a time. Of course, I still have to pick up $12 min order of dry ice, then figure $500 material cost for the oven so I think in about another 30 knives I will break even- well, not counting labor haha!
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My next big purchase is going to be an oven. I think I'm going to buy one already made though. I'm definitely no electrician!
 
crocogator106 said:
...I want to make sure I get all the steels potential out of the heat treat...
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That's the right way to look at it :thumbup: Complex alloys like Elmax do need very specific temps and times and cryo and all that interesting stuff to reach their full potential and performance.
 
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