first knife design thoughts and quench

C

crolow

Joined
Mar 20, 2015
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6
So my mom wanted a nice knife to fit her hand and one she couldn't accidently use backwards and cut her thumb (happens a lot). She is a carver, camper and hunter so I made this (attached hopefully). It is pretty much done. I just need to harden and temper. I was planning on a brine quench (1095 steel) but after reading I'm hesitant. I want to finish it today so I don't have access to fancy oils. Thoughts on what would work best from a local store? Full harden would be nice but since it's my first knife it doesn't have to be perfect ;)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4oya75f7i0p7udh/20150320_144338.jpg?dl=0
 
Very nice. I think your Mom will have great use out of it. Would like to see the finished product.
 
Use a gallon of Canola oil to quench that knife. Brine would likely cause problems.

Warm the oil to 130F.
Heat the blade as evenly as possible until it is non-magnetic. Then heat about one full shade of red more. That will put it around 1475-1490F. Once it is all evenly heated ( avoid overheating the tip and edge) quench straight into the oil. Hold under the oil for a count of ten. Pull out and straighten any warps quickly with gloved hands. Once it starts to stiffen up, quit straightening. Let cool to room temp. Temper in a 400F oven for an hour, pull out and cool off in running water, put back for a second hour, cool off again....and the hardening and tempering is done.
 
Easy enough! Thanks stacy! Hopefully all goes well. I've really enjoyed making it so far and have 3 other in progress and some parks 50 on order. I'm using 1095 just because it was free. Think it's better to learn with 1048?
 
I am sure that was a typo, and you meant 1084..... not 1048 :)

1084 has no hold time once it reaches austenitization, so it is far more friendly to simple HT equipment. 1095 should be held at 1475°F for about 5-10 minutes for the best results. That is nearly impossible without a HT oven or a PID controlled forge.

With 1095 and simple heating methods, just get it evenly heated to about 50° above non-magnetic, try to keep it there for a minute if you can, and quench. It will harden and be fine.
 
Ya. Typo. I have a little wood forge I built that gets to 2000 easy so 10 min at 1500 should be easy. Thanks for the tips!
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Use a gallon of Canola oil to quench that knife. Brine would likely cause problems.

Warm the oil to 130F.
Heat the blade as evenly as possible until it is non-magnetic. Then heat about one full shade of red more. That will put it around 1475-1490F. Once it is all evenly heated ( avoid overheating the tip and edge) quench straight into the oil. Hold under the oil for a count of ten. Pull out and straighten any warps quickly with gloved hands. Once it starts to stiffen up, quit straightening. Let cool to room temp. Temper in a 400F oven for an hour, pull out and cool off in running water, put back for a second hour, cool off again....and the hardening and tempering is done.
Click to expand...

Stacy - will this work for 5160 too? Just acquired a 6 gallon bucket of used fryer oil from the grocery store.
 
"fryer oil" is not usually good for quenching faster steels. 5160 is a slower speed quench, so it would probably work.

The problem with most commercial fryer oils ( Interstate #40, semi-solid, etc.) is they are formulated to stay hot and not decay too fast. They are not formulated to cool things.
 
Well that didn't go so well... first one I got non magnetic for about 5 min then go anxious and dunked er in oil.... still very soft and the file gouged pretty deep. Filed out the file scratch and let it get a bit over non magnetic almost a yellow. Plunged into the oil and same thing. Super soft. Starting to think this free 1095 isn't actually 1095... or I'm I completely dumb and missing something? I tried a third time - this time with a MAPP torch. Got to non magnetic and held for a minute and plunged into a water/soap/jet dry blend. It cracked a bit and is harder but file still leaves a line. What am I doing wrong and what is a good heat treat place for these 7 other knives that I don't want to screw up?
 
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