M4

[Walt2]

I got some M4 blades back from being tempered by Paul Bos today and I am wondering if there is anyone here with experience with cleaning up this steel after tempering. Hardness is at 62.5 according to Paul. 400 grit will gradually remove the gray color but that is about all it will do. Scotchbrite belt? Thanks

 

[siguy]

not the same steel or hardness, but my A2 blades at 60 i like to put on an 80 grit belt to start and then move to 120. i do all convex ground though, so i don't do any hand sanding.

you might try a diamond sharpening stone, that might work.

or you could just go for a courser sandpaper, something like 150 might work well.

 

[butcher_block]

3M gator belts are the only way to go with high allow steel thats been hardened
but thats just my 2cents

you will kill alot of belts if you didnt get most of the way finished before heat treat

 

[Walt2]

Thanks for the comments. I did most of the finishing before HT, but when I started cleaning up the gray color on one of the blades, it made me wonder if some were doing some work on finishing the blades after HT. Definetly no comparison with A2 even when A2 is tempered to 61-62.

 

[butcher_block]

i hand sanded the 10V push dagger i made before heat treat so that all i had to clean off was a compromised layer of steel

the higher the ally the higher the finish before heat

least thats how i do it 9yse it sucks when something gos bad in heat then)

 

[Walt2]

Ken Onion had a suggestion on another forum that I am going to try, a diamond stone to finish with.

 

[JTknives]

I got some M4 blades back from being tempered by Paul Bos today and I am wondering if there is anyone here with experience with cleaning up this steel after tempering. Hardness is at 62.5 according to Paul. 400 grit will gradually remove the gray color but that is about all it will do. Scotchbrite belt? Thanks

i was having a hard time hand finishing my last blade which was m2 at 64.5. took forever