having a senior moment on heat issue

J

JimPat

Joined
Jan 11, 2019
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5
Gents,

a few years ago little man and I were making some knives as a father-son project. We were using stock removal from some 1095 steel. I was in the military at the time. I ended up retiring and....life happened. Here we are about four years later and I want to get back into it. Of course, can't find the blanks we made and am missing some stuff.

QUESTION: at one point I heated the raw steel to make working it easier. For the life of me, I can't remember the "why" behind this move. It wasn't a heat-quench; or tempering the blade for finish. it was prior to cutting the blades and profiling them.

Am I wrong? I am having a senior moment and can't find my materials nor the reason why I did this at the time.

I am going to try it again with little man. Thinking of using 1084 (as it's easier steel than 1095?).

Am I losing what little bit of mind I have left? Does the steel "need" to be Brought to high heat to be worked; or, can I just start stock removal and worry about heat treat at the end?

BTW, am now living in San Antonio so there may be some resources down here to send the blades out to be treated properly.

Thanks for listening, for the life of me, I can't remember why I did this.

Jim.
 
If just doing stock removal, buy some CRA (cold rolled annealed), and go to town. Annealed stock will cut, drill and grind as easy as any other steel. You shouldn't have to heat it, other than the heat treat and tempering, though if you do happen to heat it up while grinding, it won't matter, pre-heat treat.

As for 1084 vs 1095, if you're sending out for heat treat, it really shouldn't matter. 1084 is a little be more forgiving for heat treating purposes, but if the heat treater knows his stuff, it really shouldn't be a problem either way.

Do you remember if you had hot rolled stock previously? Hot rolled is often not annealed after rolling, and can be a little more difficult to drill and cut. Maybe that's why you tried heating?
 
Thanks Drew. Can't remember if it was hot or cold......; been a stressful few years and I swear I did a data-dump on the material we were using. What is bothering me is got I can't find my notebook or notes on what we were doing and the "why."

I'll poke around and try the "CRA" steel. Sincerely appreciate the guidance!!

Jim
 
1084 is a good choice even if someone else is doing the heat treat. Easy to work, makes a great knife, forges easily, easy to heat treat. Really an awesome steel for general knife making.
Is it the new sexy steel of the week? No. But it’ll make great knives all week long!
 
sweet, I'm drinking from the firehose here tryin to research this all but it seems as though I forgot what little I learned a few years back. Sincerely appreciate the help guys. Jim
 
No, if you buy steel from a knife supplier, it should come ready to be worked on.

I suspect you "annealed" the steel by heating it to red and allowing it to slow cool. That made it easier to work on. This may or may not have been necessary, depending on where you got the steel.

1084 is a good choice.The steel will need to be hardened after the basic shaping is done. Then you finish the surfaces the final amount, add the handle, and sharpen the edge.
 
If the 1084 comes from NJSB there is a chance it will need some normalizing cycles befor heat treating. When ever I get blades in 1084 for heat treating I ask the customer where the steel cane from. If thy say NJSB then thy get a 3 step normalizing and grain refining befor heat treating. Just somthing to keep an eye on.
 
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