Freezing a blade

gets real cold. You could put it in some juice, and make knife popcicles. :D sorry, I'm really fiesty today.
 
If the blade is already heat treated and tempered, it will do nothing but make it cold. Freeze treatment is done right after hardening then it's tempered.
Scott
 
It won't do anything bad to the blade. If the blade was well heat treated it's not likely to do anything good either. While the steel is extremely cold (say liquid nitrogen temperature) it is more brittle.
 
It could hurt the handle depending upon what material it was made from and how cold you go. Different materials expand and contract with temperature at different rates, this put stress on the handle material, the glue and the fastners.
 
RedEdge77 said:
What happens if you freeze a blade? Does it do anything to it?
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When steel freezes, it becomes quite fragile and shatters easily. That's why buildings in the northern US and Canada that have steel girders in them have to be rebuilt after each winter. And most cars crumble as well.
 
Torz, if you are talking about the 'brittle transition temperature ' that's a special condition and it disappears when returned to room temperature.There are alloys specially developed for low temperature service....Knives are not going to be improved by freezing.
 
mete said:
Torz, if you are talking about the 'brittle transition temperature ' that's a special condition and it disappears when returned to room temperature.
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I'll edit my smart alecky response 'cause this is the general forum and I don't want to make this thread drift into hokey-ness.

:p
 
The brittle transition temperature phenomina is one of the things that sank the Titanic ! There have been ships that broke in half because of it !!
 
One of the russian way to get rid of burr is to freeze blade and make few strokes on sharpener...

Did not try this myself, but heart about it.

So in general blate get more brittle and this is why scandinavian and russian prefer laminated blades.

Thanks, Vassili.
 
I would wager that it depends very much on the steel and how the steel was heat treated.

I am using regular HC springs under liquid nitrogen. On my first attempt I was sure they would be so brittle they would lose all springiness and would break very easily. I found out that nothing happens, they don't even get appreciably stiffer and I have tensioned and released them (its kind of a homebuild mousetrap) maybe 100 times by now....no effect. They only rust because, the humidity in the air covers them in snow when I pull them out of the liquid nitrogen.
 
Cryo treatment, freeze treatment or sub zero quench has been discussed quite a bit in the shoptalk forum. Do a search and you'll find oodles of info on the subject. :)
Scott
 
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