How to temper 40" plus steel?

Ferahgo

Ferahgo

Joined
Mar 6, 2014
Messages
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So, I have recently begun knife craft in earnest. My eventual goal is to get into the sword craft game. Question is, as a broke soon to be student, will I need to send it in for HT+temper, or is some way I can do it myself? I cannot afford any sort of huge tempering oven for it, so is there an alternative I don't know of, yet?
Thanks in advance!
 
oh, forgot to mention, I will more than likely just be using basic steels, like 10xx or 5160
 
Build a drum forge for long blades. This topic came up the other day, too- kuraki posted a pic of his. Tall cerablanket-lined chamber with a burner ported in low on one side. Look up "Fogg Style drum forge" over at bladesmithsforum.com for lots of info.

For tempering...
Cheapest effective option, make one of these. Mine works pretty well with a little babysitting.
 
What equipment and amount of space do you have at your disposal. What's your experance with knife making. If your just doing knives by hand, aka sand paper and files then I highly recommend nailing down the knives first. A sword is much more then just a long knife, Walk befor you run. There are few if any places to send sword blades for heat treating. It's amazing what you can do with minimal tools as long as you have the skill set to back you up. Tools do not make up for lack of experance. But there is nothing wrong with setting a gole. Use that gole to drive you to learn and acquire what you need.

P.S would love to see the knives you are making.
 
Wally Hayes has an awesome video on making swords without a lot of equipment. You can temper in your home oven with the tang hanging out if you have to.

That being said I'd make a bunch of knives first or at the same time... maybe tantos with sword style handles.
 
i saw a blacksmith rub a blade over a large piece of metal that was red hot until the blade got the straw color. bill bagwell does his temper with a torch along the spine until he sees the color.
 
Like Salem said

IMG_20171111_28389.jpg

I temper in here too. I made a large burner for ausenitizing and a small one for tempering.
 
40" upright pipe with oil heated to your tempering temp. As long as it's not to high. That's how several sword makers temper blades
 
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