Looking for feedback

[Suprtek]

So I'm new to knife making and pretty new to the forum. I've made a few railroad spike knives that I'm pretty happy with. I recently scavenged several lathe tailstock centers that I thought could make pretty good knives. I believe they are 52100. I decided to make a test knife so I could see the results of my process. I started by attempting to anneal it by heating it to non magnetic and plunging it into a preheated can of sand to cool slowly. I read that 52100 likes to crack if forged too cold so I tried to maintain heat while forging. After forging and some rough grinding I normalized by again heating to non magnetic and allowing to air cool. I then heat treated by heating yet again to non magnetic and quenching in preheated soy oil (it was cheap). I tried to keep everything simple because I have a primitive forging set up and I want to be able to reliably reproduce these results.

Here's a link to a handful of very short testing videos. I might be throwing myself to the wolves here but I'd appreciate any feedback.

https://icedrive.net/1/37Oj9vupnq

 

[Suprtek]

I forgot to mention...I also did a tempering cycle at 425 for one hour.

 

[Dimitar Popov]

Hello, my feedback is about your edge. Your bevels are really low and so the angle of the edge is very obtuse . It is not sharpened as a knife but more like metal cutter. That's why it takes the abuse without any damage. If you sharpen it as a knife dont test it by cutting metal things with it.

 

[Suprtek]

Hello, my feedback is about your edge. Your bevels are really low and so the angle of the edge is very obtuse . It is not sharpened as a knife but more like metal cutter. That's why it takes the abuse without any damage. If you sharpen it as a knife dont test it by cutting metal things with it.

You're right. I left the edge very thick because I knew I was going to break it. I may try to grind a more appropriate bevel on part of the broken blade to test the edge again. I know knives aren't intended to cut metal but I really want to see what it takes to damage the edge so I know what future knives made from the same material are capable of.

 

[Diego_B]

Do x3 normalization cycles next time I haven’t worked with 52100 yet since I don’t have a proper way to heat treat it. I suggest you pick up some 1084, 1080, or 1075 all these should be easy to ht in a primitive set up.

Also not sure if you were meaning to do this but that edge looks fairly thick. I’m not sure if you were going for a Scandi grind? But if I were you I’d get that edge thinner. All in all I think your on the right track and I’m impressed that you broke it to check your grain. This is very important to do in the beginning stages while you figure out your heat treating process. Also are you heat treating in a campfire or similar? You said your set up is fairly primitive.

 

[Suprtek]

Do x3 normalization cycles next time I haven’t worked with 52100 yet since I don’t have a proper way to heat treat it. I suggest you pick up some 1084, 1080, or 1075 all these should be easy to ht in a primitive set up.

Also not sure if you were meaning to do this but that edge looks fairly thick. I’m not sure if you were going for a Scandi grind? But if I were you I’d get that edge thinner. All in all I think your on the right track and I’m impressed that you broke it to check your grain. This is very important to do in the beginning stages while you figure out your heat treating process. Also are you heat treating in a campfire or similar? You said your set up is fairly primitive.

I'm using this steel because I got it free and I don't mind the challenge. The idea of forging something new from scavenged material really appeals to me although I'm not ruling out purchasing known materials in the future. I wasn't going for any particular grind. I just wanted it to be close to a knife shape for testing. As I said in my previous response to another post, I may regrind and test again. I'll have to be careful to keep it cool while grinding though. My forge is a basic small single burner propane forge from amazon. I know my experience is limited but I'm impressed by how quickly it heats up steel. I can get a cold railroad spike to bright color in about 3 minutes or so.

 

[Diego_B]

I'm using this steel because I got it free and I don't mind the challenge. The idea of forging something new from scavenged material really appeals to me although I'm not ruling out purchasing known materials in the future. I wasn't going for any particular grind. I just wanted it to be close to a knife shape for testing. As I said in my previous response to another post, I may regrind and test again. I'll have to be careful to keep it cool while grinding though. My forge is a basic small single burner propane forge from amazon. I know my experience is limited but I'm impressed by how quickly it heats up steel. I can get a cold railroad spike to bright color in about 3 minutes or so.

Ok I see, I thought you were using a campfire or hole in the ground in your “primitive forge”. But you are using a propane forge like most of us. Since you are using a propane forge and are using repurposed steel that probably is hard already maybe try and normalize it once? It may help to relax the steel a little and make it easier to shape. I’m sort of a fan for forging things that have had a different purpose before but I don’t do it as much as I did because I’ve learned from here it’s just easier to work with known steel.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

My comment as about your HT.
The normalizing is done a good shade and a half higher than non-magnetic - around 1650°F. That is about 200° above non-magnetic.
The austenitization temperature for 52100 is about a full shade brighter than non-magnetic - around 1525°F. That is 100° past non-magnetic.

Improper normalization after forging may leave coarse grain which chips easily.

The comments about the edge have been made by Dimitar.

 

[Suprtek]

My comment as about your HT.
The normalizing is done a good shade and a half higher than non-magnetic - around 1650°F. That is about 200° above non-magnetic.
The austenitization temperature for 52100 is about a full shade brighter than non-magnetic - around 1525°F. That is 100° past non-magnetic.

Improper normalization after forging may leave coarse grain which chips easily.

The comments about the edge have been made by Dimitar.

I appreciate the info. What did you think about how the grain looked in the last video?

 

[weo]

What did you think about how the grain looked in the last video?

Kinda hard to tell in the video, but doesn't look bad. Here's my standard answer to that question, this was posted a year or so ago:

As you can see, once you get to 2x normalization, it gets hard to see the progressive difference without really good camera focus.