Hammer texturing a knife

[rodriguez7]

So I’ve been seeing these a lot on instagram, and I’m liking the rustic look! Can this be done on air hardened steels? I’ve seen people use a ball peen hammer, and it looks relatively simple. Of course you have to take the blade to red hot, then hammer, then I’m guessing normalize, and heat treat like normal. But with the texture, will plate quench still work? Will I compromise some toughness? Thanks.

 

[JTknives]

Doing it to air hardening steel would be a nightmare if you where just trying to get that “FAKE” forged look. We won’t talk about that as it brings up a lot of very strong feelings here on the form. But all that aside,texturing steel can be done in the cold annealed condition. There is a limit to how much you can do cold. You don’t want to introduce cracks or other devious things not your blade.

Now you can do it hot but stay away from the austenite temp. If you get it to hot it will harden as it cools. But if you took it up to just where it started showing color at around the 1100-1300° range you should be safe from rehardening. Once you get into the 1400-1500° it will harden to some extent but not full hardness.

If your really wanting go crazy on the texture then it needs to be done at the upper temps in the 1700-1900° range. But as it air cools it will harden up, just about, if not fully.

To anneal the blade after this will require a good oven and a lot of time. I generally start at 1650° If I remember correctly. I sit at that temp till everything is soaked then I drop temp at a rate of 20° per hour down to 1000°. So that’s like 32hrs just to get to 1000°. Then I turn the oven off and let it cool naturally so to speak. Do not cool faster then 40° per hour as that’s kinda the recommended max temp drop per hr.

 

[GoldSkula]

I have used the "fake forged" look myself in some water hardening steel without any problems. I hammered it cold with a small ball peen hammer.

 

[jdm61]

Fake Forged......sad?