Heat treating larger blade

D

Dana Hackney

Joined
Nov 1, 2005
Messages
174
Hi guys,

Quick question regarding the heat treating of a larger (biggest to date for me) blade.
I'm working on a bowie with a 6" blade, 1/4" at ricasso and tapered to a nice point at the tip. The edge is ground to ~25 thou. and is about 1.5" at the wide point. It's O-1.

I want to differentially heat treat it and am wondering what the best/easiest method would be
to accomplish the task. Can I use the torch method and try heating the edge up (like Ed Caffrey shows on his basic forging DVD) or do I need to go with the forge and heat the
whole thing up to critical temp?

Thanks and best regards,
Dana Hackney
Monument, CO
 
Dana,Different smiths do it in different ways.I would normalize the blade,quench it in warm oil,temper it in the oven at 350,an draw the temper down on the spine and ricasso with a torch.I believe this will avoid warpage,and give the differential tempers where you want them.Other ways would be clay coating,edge quenching,and edge heating.
 
Either method can accomplish your end but using a torch requires an extra good touch (much experience at that) and the greater the blade length the more experience required. Not to say the other way is like falling off a log. It is not but it is the method I recommend to both you and myself. For me and all asking, torches are good for heating the furnace cavity and rather not for direct heat.

RL
 
Stacey and Roger. I'll opt for the easier method and use the forge for
bringing the entire blade up to temp and do the quench as you prescribe.
I don't want to blow this one after all the time and effort I put into this
blade.

Kind regards,
Dana
 
I've never been able to get a blade bigger than 4" to work with a torch. It seems nearly impossible to get the whole length of that edge to critical att he same time by nature of how the torch works.....im sure there is a way to do it, but a cheap one brick forge with that same torch is much easier. Get the whole thing non-magnetic and simply edge quench, leaving the spine softer, outside the oil.
 
use a #4 tip and go slow........cut the lights off. Do me a favor.
After you quench it once. wait 5 miniuts and do it again.......it will heat up much faster and you will get the thermocycles that help the performance.
Look for tangarine orange and no hotter......soak just below that color for a few miniutes the go up to tangarine.

I do that 4 times :)
 
I heat mine to full color, hold for 5 mins then quench. Of course this is full blade hardening. Temper twice at 390 for 2 hours. Works great for me.
Scott
 
guys, for the helpful info.

Hey Brian, do I use the hot blade to "cut off" the lights:) ?
I recall a friend of mine from back east who lived in the Cheesapeak
area who also used that phrase in lieu of "turn off" - interesting.

By the by, is a #4 tip a larger tip? I've got a torch kit that I bought a while
back and am not sure what tips came with the kit.

Many thanks,
Dana
 
4 tip is sorta MED. size..................Cut off the torch when you put it up :)
Now thats southern for ya' :)
 
warning, major hijack:


I have a friend from Michigan that says, "I gotta go leave a leak."

It sounds so weird to me... But I guess it makes more sense than when most of us say, "I gotta go take a leak"

Personally, I've never taken one anywhere... just left them somewhere.:o :D
 
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