Finishing the blade before heat treat?

[Adamantium]

I've got a question, Can you finish your knives before heat treatment? Lets say that you were to bring your knves to a 600 grit satin finish, then when you got them back from hardening would you be able to take off the heat treatment coloring(with something like acetone) off of the steel and would the nice finish would still be there?

Sincerely,
Adam

------------------
Self improvement is a hobby of mine .

 

[george tichbourne]

Adam
That heat treat film is an oxide of nitrogen and is removable only with pickling acid or by buffing or sanding. Most makers do not use acid because of fumes and danger.

If you do finish to 600 grit before heat treating a quick touchup after heat treating is all that is necessary in most cases.



------------------
george
www.tichbourneknives.com
sales@tichbourneknives.com

 

[Darrel Ralph]

Adam,
There are a couple of differnt schools here. Some grind after heat treat , Some grind then heat treat. I grind finish then heat treat.
The big concern is keeping warp out of the blades ar finding a sutible way to straighten them after heat treat. Using salt pots and a steel that can be marquenched is the best thing I have seen for carbons.. There is very little warp because there is less shock using the interupted quench method. The blade in general are tougher and more flexible also.
The salt is on the blade while at critical temp. It stop alot of the oxidation .

As for stainless I use foil bags and the magnetic chuck method. I leave a flat on the blade spine. Then while air quenching I slap the blades on the magnetic chuck. This keeps them flat in most cases. Then I grind the flat away

------------------
Web Site At www.infinet.com/~browzer/bldesmth.html
Take a look!!!

 

[tom mayo]

wholeheartedly concur with the above.... warpage is one of the prime considerations for not final finishing before heat treat... i used to take my knives a lot further on before h/t but now only take them to 220 at the most....one thing....some steels should be finished or nearly finished because of the difficulty in getting the scratches out after hardening....440v...420v.....vascowear and maybe a few others....the rest seem to grind fairly easily after heat treat...even at Rc 60....thats your main worry...deep scratches...if you get them out really well with a fairly used 320 grit belt before heat treat the finish will be fairly easy...but if you go all the way and get some warpage you might have to go back to 60 grit or 100 grit and then all that work is down the drain...

------------------
http://www.mayoknives.com