Heat Treating Question

C

claybuster5

Joined
Nov 18, 2012
Messages
54
I am about to make my first set of knives, (pairing knives with 15N20) and I don't want to pay $10 a blade for a paring knife to get heat treated which is probably not worthy of heat treating anyway. Is heat treating absolutely necessary? Can I do a "poor man's heat treat" myself?

I was thinking about doing what a member recommended, heating with a propane torch then quench in canola oil.

Thanks
- Claybuster5
 
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Heat treating is absolutely necessary, otherwise you might as well use a piece of scrap or mild steel. There are plenty of guys on here who can heat treat it for you, but $10 per blade is a very reasonable price to have it done right.

You can do a poor man's heat treat but it's not as easy on 52100. 1084 would be a better choice to HT at home.
 
Heat treatment is the single most important part of the creation of a knife. If a knife is pretty, but has a horrible heat treat, it is just a wall hanger. Don't sell yourself short. Put what is necessary into making a quality product that you will be proud of, not something you will regret spending time on later. As far as doing it yourself, heat treatment for 52100 is hard enough that it would probably be a good idea to have someone with a kiln do it for you.

This isn't probably what you wanted to hear, but make a product worthy of your time. You will have wasted more money on materials by the time you are done than the HT would have cost.
 
What has already been said is good stuff. If you haven't made the knives yet, I would go with another steel like 1084,1075. That said if you don't have a forge it won't be easy even with simpler steels.

steve
 
15N20 takes a pretty specific HT. Either send it to another maker who has a HT oven and the right equipment, or set them aside for now.
 
Is heat treat important??? A bad heat treat can make the nicest looking knife nothing more than scrap. $10 is a very fair price to heat treat a blade.
 
claybuster

One disadvantage of incompletely filling out your profile, and not allowing email/PM is that no one will contact you with an offer to HT your blades. People can only help you if you want the help. Insufficient info, and not allowing communication says, "I'm good, No thanks."
 
Dude,you are an hour and a half up the road from me, I can just throw a blade or two in the kiln while I am at my shop in Ithaca if you are not in a hurry. First one or two is free.

-Page
 
Thank you for the offer! I am heading past that area the 26th but I have yet to have a completed blade, I will keep you in my contacts when I have some, thanks a lot!
 
Thanks for filling out your profile. It tells us things that help tailor the answers.

Page's offer is one of the great things about Shop Talk.
Have a parent come with you, of course. ( I think Page still has that probation thing about unsupervised contact with minors ;) ....just kidding, he is a nice guy).
 
I didn't realize you were 15. I would be happy to heat treat your knives once I have had an in person conversation with your parent(s) that would include some sort of written statement that you have permission to do this, yadda yadda yadda. Nothing personal, but in this litigenous age I have to worry about getting sued.

-Page
 
sunshadow said:
I didn't realize you were 15. I would be happy to heat treat your knives once I have had an in person conversation with your parent(s) that would include some sort of written statement that you have permission to do this, yadda yadda yadda. Nothing personal, but in this litigenous age I have to worry about getting sued.

-Page
Click to expand...

Yeah, I expected that, my parents (thankfully) are all for what I do. That wouldn't be a problem.
 
bladsmth said:
Thanks for filling out your profile. It tells us things that help tailor the answers.

Page's offer is one of the great things about Shop Talk.
Have a parent come with you, of course. ( I think Page still has that probation thing about unsupervised contact with minors ;) ....just kidding, he is a nice guy).
Click to expand...

:D Yes sir! I can't drive yet so I would have to have my parents take me, thankfully they are for what I do.
 
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