HT / Grinding Question

[carbonsteel928]

Hello all,

I'm in need of some advice.... I have a ton of blades to prepare for heat treat (Peter's) and would like your opinion on whether to grind prior or post. The OAL is 7 inches and the blade is roughly 3" long 1/8" thick and 7/8" wide. I'm using stainless. Thanks in advance.

 

[james terrio]

I use Peters' for both carbon and stainless blades, both large and small. I routinely grind/taper my blades and tangs completely pre-HT, with my edges down to .015" (sometimes less, but certain alloys are touchy about that) with no fear of them coming back warped.

Honestly, for relatively thin stainless blades like you're describing, it depends mostly on the final finish you want. If you're going for a belt/scotchbrite/stonewash finish, there is no harm in just sending them your profiled blanks and grinding them hard. Keep 'em cool.

If you want a fine hand-rubbed finish or mirror polish, for goodness sakes grind the bevels before HT and sand them to at least a clean 400 grit. You do NOT want to be sanding rough grind marks out of a stainless or tool-steel blade at 58Rc or higher.

If you were working on larger, thicker blades, I would definitely advise grinding at least the basic bevels before HT, regardless of final finish. A 9" long by 1/4" thick blade takes plenty long enough to grind soft, never mind grinding the whole thing hard.

 

[Mudbug007]

If it's stainless, I would grind them pre-heat treat. I normally grind my carbon steel post heat treat so my first batch of stainless I reasoned I could do the same with stainless. When I got my blanks back and started grinding, I realized I'd made a huge mistake! This stuff was a monster to grind! (Most of these blades were .110 or thinner also)

From that point on, all my stainless has been ground to shape pre-heat treat. CPM 154 is just too tough for me to grind afterwards! It takes a lot of time and effort to get it where you want it. Just better to do it before heat treat!