Help with heat treating

Z

ZeroTurnDude

Joined
Jun 8, 2014
Messages
294
I'm making a knife and now it's time for heat treat and I have know clue how to heat treat something lol

So can someone school me on this lol

1095 is what I'm using

ZTD
 
That's not a beginner steel .What do you have to heat it with ?
 
I'll be blunt and honest...you are not likely to get anything but poor results with a blowtorch or a fire pit. Forget You-Tube videos of guys doing that...it does not work well at all in most cases, and would be really poor on 1095. If you fill out your profile with all the info ( age, location, hobbies, occupation, etc.) then someone near you may offer to do the HT for you.
Sending it to Texas Knife Supply, True Grit, or another place for HT is also a good option.

The HT for 1095 has been discussed many times here, and is also in the stickys. The search engine is:
https://www.google.com/cse/home?cx=011197018607028182644:qfobr3dlcra

1095 basic HT:
Normalize before HT , especially if the blade was forged. ( you can search normalization cycling)
Austenitize at 1475-1500F and soak for 10 minutes.
Quench in fast oil. Room temperature Parks #50 is preferred, but 130F canola oil will work.
Immediately temper twice at 400F, cooling in water between the temper cycles.
 
bladsmth said:
I'll be blunt and honest...you are not likely to get anything but poor results with a blowtorch or a fire pit. Forget You-Tube videos of guys doing that...it does not work well at all in most cases, and would be really poor on 1095. If you fill out your profile with all the info ( age, location, hobbies, occupation, etc.) then someone near you may offer to do the HT for you.
Sending it to Texas Knife Supply, True Grit, or another place for HT is also a good option.

The HT for 1095 has been discussed many times here, and is also in the stickys. The search engine is:
https://www.google.com/cse/home?cx=011197018607028182644:qfobr3dlcra

1095 basic HT:
Normalize before HT , especially if the blade was forged. ( you can search normalization cycling)
Austenitize at 1475-1500F and soak for 10 minutes.
Quench in fast oil. Room temperature Parks #50 is preferred, but 130F canola oil will work.
Immediately temper twice at 400F, cooling in water between the temper cycles.
Click to expand...

I would sent it to some buddy but this is my first knife I'm doing (besides doing one made out of a file) and I dont want to spend that much money on it lol but thanks for the advice now I know not to get my hopes up.

ZTD
 
I've also started making knives, and I use a blow torch as well, with an acetylene tank.

If you're going to use a torch, put the knife in a small container (brick oven setup) insulated with ceramic wool. Make an opening small enough for the tip of the torch to be placed inside; the lower the better.

I use water for quenching. It adds hardness and it's cheaper, but you run the risk of the blade cracking. I've never had that happen though.

Also, don't forget to temper afterwards, as your knife will be extremely brittle after heat treating. There are a lot of graphs floating around on the Web that help choose temperature and time according to the steels color after heat treat.

Another thing: try to keep the edge of the blade out of direct flame, because a fine edge can be burned off because of how thin it is.

I've never used 1095, only 01 tool steel, but it's the same basic principal.
 
Just to help you understand what is being said.....A fire pit or torch indeed is not the best set up for any steel really....let alone O1 or 1095...but can be done. It's just the end result will not be near the full potential of the knife. You can take a 1095 blade, heat it to non magnetic and a little past, hold it there (takes some skill) for a few minutes, and quench in warm canola oil. What you'll have is a hard blade...but not the full steel's potential. 1095 and O1 require a very precise temperature control, and they need to "soak" at that temperature for 10 minutes or so. Doing this with a torch or fire pit is just very difficult to do. 1084, on the other hand, requires no soak at all. Just an even heat at 1500F, and quench. Another thing with 1095 is the quench needs to be a fast one. Brine being the best but risky. Commercial fast oils are almost required, but warm canola will do the trick in thin cross sections (stay under 1/8").
 
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