Heat Treating

F

flakjacket

Joined
Aug 27, 2007
Messages
54
I'm a total noob when it comes to knifemaking. It's something that I've wanted to do for some time now and I have a few drawings/designs on paper and in my head. I went ahead and bought myself a piece of 440C bar stock and some linen micarta for the handles. My first knife is going to be a 1/4 inch thick full tang fighter with a Randall Mod 1 style blade just shy of 6 inches. I already have it rough cut and am about to start on the blade bevel. I already have the next one planned; a chisel ground tanto with canvas micarta slabs.

My question is...are there any companies out there that will do small batch heat treating? I've tried searching the forums here, but it doesn't seem to work for me? Do I need to be a paying member? I've also tried google, but haven't had much luck. Eventually, I'd like to make my own forge, but for the first one or two I just want to focus on my grinding technique and getting the shapes right. Thanks for bearing with me, while I learn. This forum is full of great info and I've been soaking it up.
 
Peters' Heat Treat, Texas Knife Supply or Paul Bos. Any will do individual knives or small batches.
 
Thanks. I have actually been to Texas Knife Supply website and must have missed it. Found it under "Services" I don't know too much about it, but their prices seem really reasonable. I was expecting much more.
 
it's not very expensive at all! I think Paul Bos would heat treat it for you for around $20 bucks for one blade depending on the length.
 
I've seen a lot of good things about Paul Bos online. I think I'll contact him when I'm ready. Thanks a lot. I'll be sure to post pics when I'm done.
 
FJ all the good things you have seen about Paul Bos are true, don't hesitate to send your steel to him

Spencer
 
Paul Bos charges $14 EACH for the first 5 blades

or

$70 for 20 blades.

In other words $70 for 5 to 20 blades plus shipping and handling

Pretty fair pricing IMHO

Syn
 
So if you wait until you have 20 blades, it will only cost you $3.50 per blade from Paul Bos?!

I have been considering getting 0-1 for my next blades and using Paul Bos. I guess I'm gonna have to get a lot of steel, so I can get the better price.
Man, I gotta get outa school and get a job so I can afford this hobby lol.
 
Does Paul Bos do 0-1? I just looked him up and found his brochure and it sounds like he doesnn't do oil hardening tool steels.

"OUR HEAT TREATING SPECIFICATIONS
Materials Heat Treated: All stainless steels, air hardening tool steels,
stainless steel Damascus."
 
Yes, if you have 20 blades, then they will be 3.50 each + shipping back to you. No, he doesn't do 01 (anymore) because OSHA wanted to charge him a boat load of money to keep his salt pot dealy majiggy going and he didn't do enough of that stuff to justify the $3000 a year they wanted him to pay. Or something like that. Can't remember exactly the amount.
 
Why don't you use plain carbon steel and heat treat it yourself?
IMHO heat treating is 90% of the job of making a knife out of a piece of steel. Heat treating stainless requires specific hardware and is expensive, I prefer carbon, and have made very few knives out of stainless.
 
Alarion said:
Why don't you use plain carbon steel and heat treat it yourself?
IMHO heat treating is 90% of the job of making a knife out of a piece of steel. Heat treating stainless requires specific hardware and is expensive, I prefer carbon, and have made very few knives out of stainless.
Click to expand...

I do and so can you. If you are in to it for the long haul. Have a great knife making day. --------:thumbup:
 
Back in the first couple of years of knifemaking I simply used an oxy acetalyne torch to heat treat 440C. It was a bit hit and miss and alot of scale build up to deal with. However, some of my best edge holding knives were done this way.

1) finish up the knife to 120 grit and drill all your holes.

2) Fire up the torch and add slightly more fuel to rich up the flame. It should be a whiter blue, and this will reduce the amount of that really hard oxydation to grind off.
Get the entire blade up to red-orange by keeping the torch moving at all times, keep doing this for 25-30 minutes and do not stop.

3) plunge blade into motor oil, or alternatively do an air quench. Air quench is better for thinner blades reducing the chance of warpage.

4)Temper in the kitchen oven at 420-450 for 1.5 hours and do this two or three times.

5) After doing this enough times and your hooked on knifemaking, get yourself a Paragon HT oven. The torch method is a nice way to start, but an oven is really by far the best way to go, since the knives come out practically scale free and warpage problems are minimal.
 
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