- Joined
- Sep 23, 1999
- Messages
- 3,831
Hello! I called Paul tonight and asked him the recipe. Here goes:
1 cup of sugar, 3 eggs, 1 and a half cups of cocoa, ... oh wait, that was Mrs. Bos' recipe! Never mind that one.
O.K., here's the recipe for steel:
A local knife maker guy and Paul worked on this together. The knife maker guy (herein referred to as 'dude') made knives up to 14" long using this method, and then made some swords, so it should work for your ATS-34 project.
So, here's what you do. Take some 3/4" water pipe and grind in a 1/4" split down one side. You wil place your knife in the slpit edge down. On one ond of the pipe, braze on a water hose bib. On the other end of the pipe, attach a plug (braze, weld, I don't know. Jut make it stick) and drill 4 3/16" holes. Finally, lay the rig so that when you turn on the water, it flows downhill.
The idea is that you turn on the water so that it cools the edge. The plug with the holes in it is to restrict the water flow. You want to adjust the water until it is flowing up 1/2" on the blade.
Take 2 rose buds (Oxy/acetylene torches, excuse the spelling) and heat both sides of the spine.
This method works for ATS-34, 154-CM and BG-42.
Heat the back of the blade until it turns just over a dull red color in dark light. if the blade turns bright red, you have gone too far. When parts of the blade start to turn dull red, you are at about 1000 degrees. When the whoel blade is a dull red, youa re at about 1300 degrees. 1300 degrees is where you are aiming for. You have to go over 1000 degrees to get the spine to drop below 59-58 degrees.
As soon as you get that even dull red, turn off the heat and let the water run until your blade is cool.
If you get things just right, the spine will Rockwell at about 50.
Originally, Paul and Dude did 10 blades and the first ones didn't get below 55 Rockwell. But with practice they consistently got down to 48-50 Rockwell.
The Dude has since made some swords and diff. heat treated them and they'll whack through 4" saplings with no damage to the edge at all. Pretty cool!
If you want to do this with 440-C, you need to back down on the themperature a bit. You want it at 1100-1150 degrees, not quite at a red color in a dimly lit room.
Paul said that with practice you can get it just right.
I had a fun time talking with Paul about heat treating and his history. He's been doing heat treating since the time when he was IN highschool! He knows his stuff! unfortunately I caught him when he was gettign ready to turn in for the night. Paul was very pleasant to talk to. I will definitely call him up again!
Good luck to all fo you knuts who are going to try this
------------------
"Come What May..."
1 cup of sugar, 3 eggs, 1 and a half cups of cocoa, ... oh wait, that was Mrs. Bos' recipe! Never mind that one.
O.K., here's the recipe for steel:
A local knife maker guy and Paul worked on this together. The knife maker guy (herein referred to as 'dude') made knives up to 14" long using this method, and then made some swords, so it should work for your ATS-34 project.
So, here's what you do. Take some 3/4" water pipe and grind in a 1/4" split down one side. You wil place your knife in the slpit edge down. On one ond of the pipe, braze on a water hose bib. On the other end of the pipe, attach a plug (braze, weld, I don't know. Jut make it stick) and drill 4 3/16" holes. Finally, lay the rig so that when you turn on the water, it flows downhill.
The idea is that you turn on the water so that it cools the edge. The plug with the holes in it is to restrict the water flow. You want to adjust the water until it is flowing up 1/2" on the blade.
Take 2 rose buds (Oxy/acetylene torches, excuse the spelling) and heat both sides of the spine.
This method works for ATS-34, 154-CM and BG-42.
Heat the back of the blade until it turns just over a dull red color in dark light. if the blade turns bright red, you have gone too far. When parts of the blade start to turn dull red, you are at about 1000 degrees. When the whoel blade is a dull red, youa re at about 1300 degrees. 1300 degrees is where you are aiming for. You have to go over 1000 degrees to get the spine to drop below 59-58 degrees.
As soon as you get that even dull red, turn off the heat and let the water run until your blade is cool.
If you get things just right, the spine will Rockwell at about 50.
Originally, Paul and Dude did 10 blades and the first ones didn't get below 55 Rockwell. But with practice they consistently got down to 48-50 Rockwell.
The Dude has since made some swords and diff. heat treated them and they'll whack through 4" saplings with no damage to the edge at all. Pretty cool!
If you want to do this with 440-C, you need to back down on the themperature a bit. You want it at 1100-1150 degrees, not quite at a red color in a dimly lit room.
Paul said that with practice you can get it just right.
I had a fun time talking with Paul about heat treating and his history. He's been doing heat treating since the time when he was IN highschool! He knows his stuff! unfortunately I caught him when he was gettign ready to turn in for the night. Paul was very pleasant to talk to. I will definitely call him up again!
Good luck to all fo you knuts who are going to try this
------------------
"Come What May..."