Heat treating 440c

Could but the end result would not be satisfactory.

440C requires non oxygen atmosphere, elevated temperatures, and cryogenic treatment to get the most from the steel.
 
Welcome to the Bladeforums.
Filling out your profile will make it easier to answer your questions.

Stainless steel has a very different HT than carbon steel. A quick check of any HT site or steel supplier (Admiral or Crucible) will turn up HT specs and procedures. I would advise reading a bit more on the subject of Heat Treatment to better understand it.

A great source if info and tutorials is www.knifehow.com . The thread at the top of this forum has info,too.
Stacy
 
Thanx for the links bladsmith, I have filled in my profile , dont understand how that helps though :) I am just a newbie to the knifemaking scene and wanted to make a knife with stainless steel , maybe I would be better sending it to someone to heat treat . I really just want to make knives at home for me and some friends ,, something that I and them can be proud of :)
 
How it helps is that by knowing where you are, everyone knows who is close by, now NSW is unlikely to get a comment of "PM suchandsuch a guy, he lives in the same town" but if you happened to be close to a local bladesmith you could well have been invited to a hammer-in at someones place and gotten a good chat with all sorts of information and demonstrations.

As it is, wellcome to bladeforums mate.
 
Thanks for filling out your profile.
As Kiwi said, it helps a lot to know where you are and a bit about who you are. I wouldn't tell you to send it to Texas Knife Supply, because shipping would be extreme. I might tell you to give kiwi or one of the other Down Under makers a shout,though.

Knowing your age or a guess about it by your profile allows the answer to be tailored to the asker. A 14 year old 8th grader will get a different answer than a retired mining engineer.

As I see you are a viticulturist, I can assume you are good with tables, charts, and reading. I used to be into enology myself (my son even ran a winery while in college). I used to put up 200-300 gallons a year.

If I saw you were a retired doctor, I might suggest a KMG for a grinder. If you were a university student, I might suggest sandpaper and files.

You can discern a lot from the info in the profile. When someone does not fill it out, it often suggests that they are not what they purport to be (perhaps in reality - a 13 year old who wants to make ninja swords from rebar; or a banned member who is trying to sneak back in).


Anyway, welcome to the forums.You might post a thread introducing yourself, giving your experience and equipment level, and asking any Australian makers to let you know if they can help with where to get materials and services down there.
Stacy

added:
A quick search on this forum turned up these (and a lot more) chaps in The Land of ther Southern Cross -
Reg ELLERY
Danno 4017
Del Raso Knives
holmsy
oupa
Roger Keagle
and many makers with KIWI in their name
 
bladsmth said:
and many makers with KIWI in their name
Click to expand...

:eek:

Aussie may have Howard trying to make them the 51st state of the union, But they haven't absorbed NZ yet :cool: they're still trying but theres no hope so long as we have the AB's to cheer for and they have to put up with a team called the Wallies :D
 
coach123456 said:
...maybe I would be better sending it to someone to heat treat...
Click to expand...

Lots of guys do that with their stainless blades, I don't think there's any shame in it, especially if you're beginning. That way you will save money (HT oven and all the stuff that goes with it gets pricy) and can assure yourself and potential customers that it was done right.

Welcome to the forums, these gentlemen are great at helping new guys!
 
Early in my knifemaking I didn't have a Paragon heatreating oven and I did my heatreatment using just my cutting torch. I simply heated up the blade until it was orange hot and was no longer magnetic. I then quenched in old used motor oil. Then I tempered in my kitchen oven. The results were very good. The only drawback was the huge amount of scale to grind off, which took its toll on my grinding belts.

The Paragon oven elliminated the scale problem that was both time and belt consuming, and reduced the problems of warpage. So yes it can be done very successfully without an oven.
 
Bufford - He is talking about 440 STAINLESS STEEL. The torch will do fine for carbon steel, but would destroy stainless. Stainless has to be heated several hundred degrees beyond non-magnetic, and held at a controlled temp for a period of time.
Stacy
 
bladsmth said:
Bufford - He is talking about 440 STAINLESS STEEL. The torch will do fine for carbon steel, but would destroy stainless. Stainless has to be heated several hundred degrees beyond non-magnetic, and held at a controlled temp for a period of time.
Stacy
Click to expand...


Sorry about that, I should have mentioned that I was using 440C and heat treated it with the torches. I have several of these knives that I made early in my knifemaking. A few of them are real dogs and don't hold an edge.

However, I made a few that hold an edge far better than those heat treated in the Paragon, and indeed are perhaps the best edge holding knives I have ever used baring none. 1) I heat treated these by adding slightly less oxygen into the flame. I kept the flame moving up and down the blade to evenly keep the blade orange hot for about half an hour. 2) Oil quenched in used motor oil that was at room temperature. 3) tempered the blades in the kitchen oven at about 400F. It was not an exact procedure, but it sure created the resulting hard tough blade I wanted. ;)
 
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