fire pit heat treat

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bushcraftbasics

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Sep 16, 2011
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hey guys and gals!

just finished my first knife!!!!! hand filed and finished with sandpaper...however i am questioning my heat treatment technique...my torch would not achieve a high enough temp, so, being the bushman that i am said "screw it" and built a good ol fasioned fire, stuffed the blade deep into the coals, pulled it out, checked for magnetic, (when it was glowing like a cherry and non-magnetic) i pulled it out and quenched it in veggie oil that i warmed in the oven to about 150 degrees, after that i tempered it in the oven at about 300 for a couple of hours...1084 steel...whatdya think? am i crazy? or just dumb?

thanks guys!

-dilla
 
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Fire pits or BBQ pits work if that's all you have. Charcoal briquettes work better than wood. You can use a hair dryer to force air and get it hotter. You'd have to kind of judge the temp by sight though.

Your tempering temp is a bit low. You should do at least 350 up to 400.
 
raylaconico said:
Fire pits or BBQ pits work if that's all you have. Charcoal briquettes work better than wood. You can use a hair dryer to force air and get it hotter. You'd have to kind of judge the temp by sight though.
Click to expand...

Actually, you want lump charcoal rather than briquettes.
There's not much actual charcoal in the briquettes, but there is loads of other crap which won't help get the desired temperature.
I had god luck with wood the first time of actual forging...however, we did burn through at least three entire trees to get the amount of coals I wanted.:eek: (it was a pretty big knife though:))
 
For a down-n-dirty heat treat you couldn't have picked a better steel. As Ray already pointed out, you need to temper more.... You probably didn't hit full hard so again, I would go with Ray's 350-400F.

Why did I even post?.... shoulda just quoted Ray.

Rick
 
I'm guessing he is an Aussie, and the 200 is centigrade - a little less than 400F.
Filling out his profile would have made that clear to all.
 
ooooh.... nice save, Stacy. I think you're right. Yup profiles help.

lol.... All I have done is agree and repeat in this thread... polly wanna cracker?
 
Rick Marchand said:
ooooh.... nice save, Stacy. I think you're right. Yup profiles help.

lol.... All I have done is agree and repeat in this thread... polly wanna cracker?
Click to expand...

Way to add to the thread Rick:p You were always more about post count than anything else anyway!
 
Thanks for the feedback guys...im here in the good ol us of a...I just got those numbers off of a chart at some website...said 200 would give me rc 59 or so for 1080...1084 wasn't on the list. It must've been inaccurate...ill post the web address when I get home
 
It's close if it was 200C, bud. Throw that baby in your oven for a couple cycles at 375F-400F for 2hrs each. The trick with a conventional oven is to let it come to heat and sit for 5-10minutes before you put the blade in. They always spike past the temperature until it equalizes itself. I used to put mine between a couple sheets of tinfoil to shelter it from the radiant heat of the elements.
 
Crap...I already finished the knife too...peened and epoxied the micarta on, blued the blade, and put the edge on...so the higher temps give a harder blade? I guess that makes sense. Like I said before...crap
 
Perhaps you got "lucky" and only partially hardened the blade in the initial quench.... Ha! Just use it and judge from there. You may have made the perfect knife for your needs. It's all good. Besides, who EVER just makes ONE!!!! Always moving forward. Welcome to the forums.

Rick
 
thanks rick...its good to have found this place...i will work on my profile, dont want to be a "troll" you know? :) again i will post the link to that chart i found for heat treating blades/tools...its a shame if it is inaccurate, it would have been an awesome recource. ill post a pic of my knife too, im pretty proud of it being my first one and having exactly zero first hand help or experience. is there a way to dertermine where it falls on the hardness scale? any small tests i can perform? it seems ok, i havent used it much but it gets hair popping sharp pretty easily, i guess we'll see how well it holds said edge...like a lays potato chip, you cant have just one! now to buy a grinder...hmmm....
 
I don't know why but his 1080 specs are way off. You can get 63-65HRC as quenched and to get it down to 59 you'll need to temper at 400F-450F depending on what you hit in the quench. His site has some good info and some things that are just plain wrong. Tempering anything at 300F is pretty useless. Tempering right out of quench is a bad move, too. Transformations are still occuring right down to 130F. It is always best to look at several different sources.

Rick
 
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Don't be overwelmed by all the different/conflicting info you will be getting(and you WILL get conflicting info). Knifemaking is as simple or complex as you want to make it. As you aquire more knowledge (metallurgical, mechanical, philosophical, artistic, etc...) your blades will improve with your skill. The important part is you continue to have fun, brother.

Rick
 
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