Grinding 440c after heat treating

J

Jack Henry

Joined
May 15, 2015
Messages
43
Hey this is my first post. Im only 13 and I havent worked with heat treated knives yet. And I was wondering if it's posible to make small changes to 440c with a rockwell hardness of 58 after it has been heat treated? Also I dont heat treat my own knives, I send them out to be heat treated. I would love to know some sugestions on a good heat treating company.
 
welcome to the forum dude :D i dont know but, just dont try microtech knives


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I regularly grind on hardened steel. The trick is to keep it from getting hot. If it feels hot to bare skin, dip it in water.
 
thanks. I wanted to send my knives to heat treat but i was worried about being able to make minor changes afterwards. Thanks for your input.
 
Charlie Mike said:
I regularly grind on hardened steel. The trick is to keep it from getting hot. If it feels hot to bare skin, dip it in water.
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+1

Patience is key, don't rush it or "force" a grind, as the metal was already tempured (hardened/softened to it's desired rate) through overheating while grinding you can mess up the tempur and weaken points in the blade.

If you grind carefully though, slow and steady, small bits at a time being careful not to let the blade get (too) hot, you should be 100% fine in altering after heat treat.
 
Jack Henry said:
thanks. I wanted to send my knives to heat treat but i was worried about being able to make minor changes afterwards. Thanks for your input.
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You can do it but be very careful with fine grits of sanding belts or grinding disks. The finer grits create more heat. Any color change of the steel when grinding is a sure sign you are damaging the tempering and hardness. Even a pale straw yellow is a bad sign, blue and you really should scrap it. Note Im not talking a small edge boo boo. But you if you can avoid it you want the steel to look the color of untreated raw steel. Color is bad. Light pressure and patience are key. You wont cut nearly as fast with fully hardened steel. I would have a scrap blade heat treated that you arent planning on using and when its back from heat treat experiment with it to see what you can and cant do without causing a color shift.
 
Howdy, and welcome to BladeForums!

There are many forums here. We have several for blade makers. One them is the "Shop Talk - BladeSmith Questions and Answers". Your thread is being moved there.
 
Welcome aboard bud! Do you have a belt grinder? You won't be able to do much with files after ht. I do most of my grinding post ht but I have a grinder(I mainly use 440c). Peters heat treat, texas knife for ht. Post some pics of your knives when you get one finished.
 
Thanks! Btw i also like to use 440c, its a really nice steal for beginners. And im going to post a pic of some of my knives when im done with one i like.
 
Nearly all knives require some degree of post-HT sanding and grinding. Keep it cool ( dip in water often), and go slow. Fresh and good quality abrasives ( sandpaper and belts) are really important when working hardened steel.
 
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