how do I straighten a blank

T

Tune_up

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Sep 14, 2010
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First off let me say I am fairly new/ignorant to knife making, have finished 5 fixed blade knives and one slipjoint. I decided I would like to attempt to make a couple of chef's knives so I ordered a piece of 0.106"x6"x15" 12c27, thinking I could cut three blanks from it. When I received it there was a slight curve in the last two inches but the 12 inches I was going to cut my blanks from was flat. I don't have a band saw so I drilled the periphery and used a dremel to finish. When I freed the blank I noticed that it curled away from the sheet of steel, same thing happened with the second blank. Each blank has a gentel curve from end to end that deviates from straight about 3/16" of an inch but there is also a slight twist. I need to know the best way to straighten the blanks. I have a torch/two brick forge but beyond that have limited resources and especially knowledge. My first thought was to heat it to red and clamp it to a piece of flat tool steel, but unless the tool steel was close to the same temp I would harden my blank and I wasn't sure if that would damage the blank in any other way. Any help would be appreciated. Michael
 
The real answere is you should have sent it back before cutting, now you need some luck and skill to get it straight. If the bend is continous I would try the three point method in a vice, two supports on one side (the concave side) and one support pushing on the middle of the convex side. this gives you a continous bend over the entire lenght. you have to over bend because it will bounce back, you can check with a straight edge without removing from the vice to see if you got the sucker straight.

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Thin annealed stock bends just looking at it he shouldn't have sent it back. Just straight it by hand it isn't hard. Sorry to be blunt but it really isn't hard to do.
 
Thanks for your help. The first one I tried went from a "(" to a "S" but eventually got it straight enough. Second went much better.
 
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