filet knife flexability

[mattd]

Something that I learned this weakend that I thought would be interesting to you all

I have been trying to make a filet knife with an 11" blade for the past week. The first one didn't work because I didn't put the blade in the forge balanced and gravity bent it. I heated it up and quentched it a couple more times but couldn't get it straight. The next blade I dropped on the cement floor between the quench and the temper. The tip broke off. The next blade made it to the temper oven and out without any problems but when it cooled off I bent it and it didn't bend all the way back. I traighted it back up and put it in the oven at 400 degrees for another hour and now it stays true after being bent. I don't know why but I thought that it was enteresting and possibly helpful to anyone that is or has ran into this problem before.

Matt deClercq

 

[rlinger]

What is the steel and what was the original temper temperature and by what means did you straighten it (or did you repeat the HT after straightening)??

RL

 

[mattd]

01, 400 degrees for an hour, it didn't spring back all the way so I just tweeked it a little, 1/4 of an inch and did another temper cycle.

 

[rlinger]

So, two 400 F. tempers did the trick and only one 400 F. temper was not enough??? What do you mean by tweaking it 1/4 inch?? do you mean you bent it back to straight plus 1/4 inch?

RL

 

[mattd]

I bent the knife a bunch, more than 45 degrees by prentending use it like I am fileting a fish on the cutting board. It didn't spring back exactly straight so I did the same thing to the other side and looked at it again. It was still bent about a quarter of an inch from being exactly straight so I tweeked it ( bent it until it was perfect) and threw it in the oven. When it was done I really put alot of preasure on it and it had no memory, it sprung right back. I don't understand why a temper cycle would affect this but it did. Thats part of the reason I thought I would bounce all this off the experts.

Matt deClercq