How To Heat Treat a file - Knife

[Jay Griesser]

I am making a knife out of a Nicholson File (10 years old marked USA). What type pf steel is it? How would you recommend I heat treat it.

Thanks for any advice.

Jay

 

[Natlek]

I am making a knife out of a Nicholson File (10 years old marked USA). What type pf steel is it? How would you recommend I heat treat it.

Thanks for any advice.

Jay

If you have belt grinder , you don t have to HT that file .You can just temper it twice ....... ? I make a lot of knives that way from files......
This is the last one I make ................from very old Nicholson file

 

[Justin King]

Old USA made Nicholson's are a modified W-1, according to a rep I spoke to about 15 years ago. He said it should be heat treated like W-1.

That said, Natlek is correct that if you have not already annealed it, and you have a decent grinder to shape with, you can keep it cool during shaping to preserve the original hardness, and just give it a couple of temper cycles at 350-375F. This will probably give better results than you can achieve trying to re-heat treat it yourself, unless you have a good setup to do so. The factory has already done a great job at achieving full hardness, or it wouldn't have been any good as a file. From there it just needs to be drawn back a bit for use as a knife. Temper before grinding will make the grinding slightly easier but it will require patience, good abrasives and lots of dunking in water to keep it cool.

If you plan to shape it without a powered grinder then you will most likely have to anneal, shape, then re-heat treat, as most hand tools will not cut hardened steel with any efficiency.

 

[Natlek]

Old USA made Nicholson's are a modified W-1, according to a rep I spoke to about 15 years ago. He said it should be heat treated like W-1.

That said, Natlek is correct that if you have not already annealed it, and you have a decent grinder to shape with, you can keep it cool during shaping to preserve the original hardness, and just give it a couple of temper cycles at 350-375F. This will probably give better results than you can achieve trying to re-heat treat it yourself, unless you have a good setup to do so. The factory has already done a great job at achieving full hardness, or it wouldn't have been any good as a file. From there it just needs to be drawn back a bit for use as a knife. Temper before grinding will make the grinding slightly easier but it will require patience, good abrasives and lots of dunking in water to keep it cool.

If you plan to shape it without a powered grinder then you will most likely have to anneal, shape, then re-heat treat, as most hand tools will not cut hardened steel with any efficiency.

I think that 350-375F is to low for Nicholson file .They are very hard ...This file is temper twice on 200 celsius .It is Nicholson and V shape before grinding . I try to straighten with hand little tail /soft part that goes in handle / and file snap like glass...........next one I will make from file I will temper at least on 250 celsius if not on 300 celsius , for peace in mind.............

 

[Justin King]

That may well be, the last time I made a file knife was years ago and I don't remember what temp I used. If I did one now I would probably start at 375 and walk it up while testing the edge.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

There is an entire section in the stickies on making a file knife, IIRC.
Use the search engine and you will get many threads on doing this, too.

 

[Jay Griesser]

If you have belt grinder , you don t have to HT that file .You can just temper it twice ....... ? I make a lot of knives that way from files......
This is the last one I make ................from very old Nicholson file

Thank you for the advice. I will try it.