Heat Treating???

R

rueffwt

Joined
Feb 20, 2006
Messages
12
Hi All,

I have been making knives for about a year, and have made about 10 or so (it's hard to balance my love of knife-making with the demands of a college education). And to be honest, no one laugh, I've never done any type of heat-treating. Could some benevolent soul out there give a novice knife-maker the basic rundown on heat treating (methods, purpose, etc.). I don't have a forge or anything so what would yall suggest i do. Any input is greatly appriciated, i'm all ears fellas please enlighten me.

Thanks
-Rueff
 
If you start with steel that's already hard, and hasn't been anealed do you still need to heat treat?
 
Don't worry, there are plenty of makers that never heat treat. You can send it off to a lot of places for heat treat and just do the knife. There is nothing wrong with that at all. To do it right, and it is my opinion of course, if you want to heat treat, you need to learn for the steel you are using, get a furnace capable of the heat needed to heat treat, learn the basics of heat treat, and go with it. Like I said, lots of makers don't heat treat and don't worry about it either.
 
If you start with a steel thats already hard and you haven't heated the blade up too much by grinding then you don't need to harden it or temper it. But if that were true then you would have fairly hard time getting it to shape.

Heres the poop on it. You can't really harden a knife without a furnace. But you can make your own out of a hibatchi and some charcoal, plus a hairdryer. Going into more detail I would have to know what steel you are using in your knives. Then you need a quench, again I would need to know the steel you're using.

After that you're probably going to want to temper it. This simply involves putting it in an oven or boiling water depending on what its going to be used for (skinning, chopping etc). This also depends on the steel you're using.
 
It is a bit late to start learning now.But ,better late than never.Get one or two good knifemaking books and read up on HT.There is a good book list and lots of HT info on www.knifehow.com
Stacy
 
Depending on the knife, I use eigther the forge, a torch or send it out(stainless). I prefere an oxy/propane torch, but some bowies are to big to heate evenly. The torch route takes some practice to not over heat the steel and get an even heat, but then so does my forge. Ideal would be a heat treat oven.

For tempering I use a modified black and decker toaster oven. The mods are an oven thermomiter, and insulation around it. Goes up to 500 deg. max and has very little thermal variance.

Stainless, Paul Bos, and cryo treatment.
 
More info please. What steel, did it have a previous life (saw blade, file etc)? If you're serious then learn some heat treat. Carbon steel is easy enough: heat it just above critical (it becomes non-magnetic), quench, temper.

A forge is easy to make (search for "one-brick forge" and "forge-b-que").
 
:confused: Reuff

There are plenty of knife makers who would be willing to invite you over to their shop for a demo, if only they knew where you are located. Being anonymous has certain draw backs.

Jim A.
 
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