My first blade from scratch. Or... Live and Learn.

A

Any Cal.

BANNED
Joined
Jan 1, 2006
Messages
1,404
Hello all. I have been reading so much about knives I figured I had to give one a try. I used some 5/16 spring steel I had. The idea was just to see what would happen. Mucho work w/ a 4" grinder and a file, and I was ready to throw it in the fire, I guess.:rolleyes: Here it is what the knife looked like out of the quench.




I had read all the links on quenching in water, it seemed cleaner, less expensive, I was impatient...
So everything went well quenching in water, but I found the blade was warped along the spine on coming out of the quench. I am guessing about 1/8" or a touch more down the length of the spine. I am guessing it is because I had the knife laying on 1 side in the coal, and it was slightly hotter.

Did I mention I was impatient? I tried to beat out the curve on the newly hardened steel by padding w/ wood and hitting w/ a hammer. A couple medium heavy blows...





There you go. The good news is the steel did get very hard.:D I am not sure what the best way to get the warp out would have been. Obviously not the way I did it. The grain in the break appears to be very fine, but I don't know what I am looking for. All in all, I am disappointed about breaking the knife, but felt like I still learned an awful lot. I think on the next go around I will use oil for a quench. Questions, criticisms, comments, are welcome. Thanks for looking.
 
Welcome to the forums! Good attempt! You could still make it a short bladed knife- give it a point of some kind. If the blade wasn't evenly heated when you quenched, it could have warped from that, or if it came out of the fire already bent. If you have a warp again, you may have better luck straightening before the blade cools off- once that happens, well, I think you saw what happens! I vote for quenching in oil next time, instead of water. I use 4 parts all mineral ford tractor transmission oil and one part shell rotella 15/40 oil.

5/16 would make a pretty heavy machette or camp knife! I'd try to make at least one knife out of the two pieces. Anneal them, regrind and heat treat again. Have an oven pre heated so you are ready to temper when you're done with the quench. Don't know what temp to tell you for the oven...
 
Good first try! I'd have to agree with folks here about going for an oil quench next time, it'll be a bit less likely to warp. Also, you didn't mention if you normalized prior to quench or not. Stress reduction is an important part of the game.

Keep at it, you're lookin' pretty well on your way already.

-d
 
being new and your first blades , had you started off with an "oil quench" you would have always questioned, "Why?...what would happen?"

But now you will NEVER question it...Thus you have learned from the efforts...painfull as they may be.
 
Thanks all. At this point I am just not sure. I used 5/16 because that is what I had. The knife was big because there was no point in making a small knife out of steel that size. I figured that the thicker the blade was, the less likely it was to warp. I also thought that since I was going to have to use my kitchen oven, the water would be preferable.

I am actually pretty happy about how it all went, regardless. The knife was turning out well, and I got to get it up to non-magnetic and quench it. It was my beating on it that broke it, but I learned a lot about the metal I was using, and how hard it got w/ the water. At least it did not crack in the quench.

The knife DID get screaming hard. That was quench, take it out, if it was still spitting water off, quench again, check it, until it did not evaporate the water so quickly.

BTW, the knife had been normalized before I started. It had a curve to it in the spring pack, and I got it red and straightened it, then left it near the coals of a wood fire to cool. It was not really annealed, but it cooled more slowly than it would need to to normalize it.
 
I'm just starting but I'm using used motor oil for quenching. on recycled saw steels.

I *think* that straightening is best done after oven heat treating and drawing down (if you do it, my first three blades are small enough that I'm not. Though I'm looking at the seax and thinking....)

If I'm wrong, someone will speak up :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top