Heat treating when performance isn't critical

[Richard338]

I thought I would send the blade out for heat treat but I wasn't sure how important it was to heat treat the arms that hold the blade. Plus it wasn't just this one project either, like I mentioned sometimes I make jewelry pieces and for those I definitely don't need anything like knife level heat treatment so it was sort of a general question as well.

I wish I could figure out how to post pictures but here goes my best description. I took the SS damascus and made two arms about 3" long. At one end I drilled holes and the axle will bolt on. At the other end I welded on a piece of SS damascus to set the space and connect the arms together. So it looks like a "U" shape of steel. At the bottom of the "U" I welded on a 5" threaded SS bolt which I will put a handle on and then use a bolt to secure the handle, kind of like the pommel on a sword.

As for the axle, I did consider bronze but wasn't sure if the bushings I could get from the hardware store were something that would be food safe. I couldn't find an exact answer on that one yet but that is later on towards the end of the project so no rush there.

I struggled trying to etch a bunch of damascus parts that hadn't been heat treated. I figured it wasn't important since these were parts for the handle. You just can't.
In the end I sent them out and paid less per part to heat treat than for that many blades.
Once treated, they etched nicely.
I had one part tempered all the way back to 45 HRC for flexibility and it still etched well.

 

[eyeeatingfish]

I struggled trying to etch a bunch of damascus parts that hadn't been heat treated. I figured it wasn't important since these were parts for the handle. You just can't.
In the end I sent them out and paid less per part to heat treat than for that many blades.
Once treated, they etched nicely.
I had one part tempered all the way back to 45 HRC for flexibility and it still etched well.

I guess a good heat treater is going to be able to accommodate you based on what you are trying to make huh? I am using some of the damascus to make a very small hatchet and I assume I would want that to be heat treated differently.

 

[Richard338]

I guess a good heat treater is going to be able to accommodate you based on what you are trying to make huh? I am using some of the damascus to make a very small hatchet and I assume I would want that to be heat treated differently.

It's worth a phone call to make sure you believe you are on the same page with them.