Hot Blued "Street Fighter"

Karl B. Andersen

Karl B. Andersen

Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Messages
5,667
One just like this one here, helped me to get my J.S. rating at this year's Blade Show. That one, however, had stainless fittings, and this one has "Black Glass" hot blued steel fittings. In fact, the butt cap is so much like a black mirror, I could not, for the life of me, figure out how to photograph it.
The 6 1/4" false edged blade was forged down from heavy 5160 stock, selectively hardened, and given an 800 grit satin hand rubbed finish.
On this one, I highly polished and buffed the beautiful African Blackwood handle.
11 1/2 inches over all!
Available at this year's Ohio Classic!
hbsf8-1.jpg
 
Hey Karl,

I'm not into fighters, but I swear, I could spend hours looking at your knives! I sure hope to meet up with you one of these days. Hope to figure out how to build a take down some day too.

All the best, Phil
 
Well, I came back to look at it again. What a beaut! Would you share any tips on how to go about bluing? What you use, etc? Thanks, Phil
 
Phil, without going into the entire process, it's one of the same processes used for hot bluing guns. As such, the materials are acquired from Brownell's, which is a gunsmithing supply.
After flawless hand sanding and mirror polishing, the SURGICALLY CLEAN parts are suspended in 292 degree molten bluing salts for about 1/2 hour, quenched in cold water and then suspended in a special water displacing oil.
The temperature of the salts can only fluctuate about 5 degrees or so. This is controlled not by heat, but by replacing boiled out H2O and stabilizing the specific gravity of the mixture, which in turn, controls the boiling temperature.
From start to finish, I usually invest about 2 hours for a hot bluing job, as you can really do nothing else in the shop while this is going on.
 
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