Fred.Rowe
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- May 2, 2004
- Messages
- 6,848
The picture at the top shows the completed cleaver set; it will be one of the prizes in our local VFD spring festival. Good people.
Any knife maker that has been at the craft for twenty years, should have their heat treating schedule down, for the most part.
I'm so used to looking in the metallurgical heat treat charts to set the electric kiln. These were supposed to be 1095 from a large saw blade that had been cut before. Tell you what; I had both of these cleavers done and was putting the finished edge on them, when I discovered the impossible, they were as soft as butter. The handles were done with three Corby bolt along with JB Weld. The Micarta is a butterscotch color cut from a large sheet of Westinghouse Micarta. DREAD DREAD DREAD! But:
An idea came to mind: why not hold the cleaver by the spine, and hold the handle under the Park's 50 high speed quench oil along with as much spine as I could, leaving the edge above the oil. My son lit the O/A torch and started heating the edge. I had not done this in many years, but when the blade looked about right, I let it slide into the oil, spine first, I grabbed the second cleaver and did the same thing. I pulled them from the oil and ran the edges over a brass octagon rod. They were very hard, the edges cracking like the sound of hard ice.
Now for step two, the temper. I contemplated using a torch but did not want to push my luck. I ended up submerging the handles in a large pot of water and placing them in a 400 degree oven for a couple of hours. It only took about an hour of hand sanding per blade to finish them. The damage done to the edges can be seen in the lower photos.
Regards, Fred
Any knife maker that has been at the craft for twenty years, should have their heat treating schedule down, for the most part.
I'm so used to looking in the metallurgical heat treat charts to set the electric kiln. These were supposed to be 1095 from a large saw blade that had been cut before. Tell you what; I had both of these cleavers done and was putting the finished edge on them, when I discovered the impossible, they were as soft as butter. The handles were done with three Corby bolt along with JB Weld. The Micarta is a butterscotch color cut from a large sheet of Westinghouse Micarta. DREAD DREAD DREAD! But:
An idea came to mind: why not hold the cleaver by the spine, and hold the handle under the Park's 50 high speed quench oil along with as much spine as I could, leaving the edge above the oil. My son lit the O/A torch and started heating the edge. I had not done this in many years, but when the blade looked about right, I let it slide into the oil, spine first, I grabbed the second cleaver and did the same thing. I pulled them from the oil and ran the edges over a brass octagon rod. They were very hard, the edges cracking like the sound of hard ice.
Now for step two, the temper. I contemplated using a torch but did not want to push my luck. I ended up submerging the handles in a large pot of water and placing them in a 400 degree oven for a couple of hours. It only took about an hour of hand sanding per blade to finish them. The damage done to the edges can be seen in the lower photos.
Regards, Fred
Well , just as I think I have seen all and learned, someone reassure me in that 
