My Mastersmith Performance Test Knife Progress

Kyle, congratulations on passing your performance test. I did not think you would have any trouble. Now for the knives for Atlanta. I look forward to seeing what you decide to make. Congratulations again.
Brion
 
Nice job, Kyle. Very exciting indeed and I'm sure you are relieved to be through this phase. Congrats and can't wait to see what you make for Atlanta!
 
There was never a doubt in my mind that you could pass the performance test.

There is also no doubt that you can make your presentation knives and pass with flying colors.

Congratulations young man, and I look forward to seeing you again in Atlanta.

Robert
 
Congrats! I will be trying to make it to Atlanta for the next Blade and cant wait to see your knives in person...no doubt in my mind that you'll get the MS stamp. :)
 
First of all, thank you for all the effort on the great videos. They are both fun and informative. Second, I'm a hug fan, and really admire how much you've accomplished in such a (relatively) short time.

That said, I do have a couple of questions/suggestions.

You have a digitally-controlled heat treat oven. You get your blades ready for quenching using precise times and temperatures. But then you break out the OA torch! I will not get into the edge quench vs. full quench thing here, but even if you choose to edge quench, why not use the oven? With your limiter plate to control depth of quench you risk nothing, and you get way better control over the final product, no?

Also, on the edge quench, why wait so long to get the point into the oil? It is the thinnest part of the blade, and rather likely to lose heat fast. The ricasso is a heat sink on the way up, but it also holds heat once it comes up to temp. Assuming you are using 1084/15N20 or some similar mixture, why not begin with the point for one or two seconds and then get the rest in the oil? Both your tank and approach seem to mirror a lot of what Ed Fowler does on his video, but remember that he is working with 52100, giving him a lot more time to get his tip into the oil, which even he does painfully slowly.

Congrats on passing the test, which we all knew you would!
 
Let me be the first to CONGRATULATE you Kyle! WELL DONE!

Good job as usual by Caleb as well!

Peter
 
Congratulations Kyle and and as always nice to see the support of your family in the background
 
Kyle,

That's exactly what I like to see on a masters test. The set the knife took was perfect IMO. Not a sharp, kinked bend, and not returning to straight. And while it's acceptable for the hardened edge to crack, yours didn't. And lastly, like Jim said, the severed rope dropping straight down, not flying across the shop. Good job.

TV


Terry Vandeventer
ABS MS
 
Kyle, I have been waiting for this last installment, good job. Was that a little bit of sweat on your brow there? Excellent job in the test and your knife performed perfectly, great bend, and excellent videos by Caleb. Congratulations again.
Brion :thumbup:
 
Good job, Kyle! You should have lots of kindling for the wood stove this winter after chopping all the 2 X 4's. But, well worth it going into your test with confidence. Great performance, and Caleb captured everything with skill, also. :thumbup:

- Joe
 
Kyle,
It's been a real pleasure watching this whole thing. I especially like seeing the support shown by your whole family. You are a very fortunate joung man.

But the challenge at hand rests on your shoulders and I bet you'll handle the challenge just fine. You've worked hard and deserve the credit for a job well done. I look forward to seeing your test knives. Lin
 
Congrats Kyle and great job to Caleb. I know the "Atlanta 5" will be exquisite.

Kevin
 
John Frankl said:
You have a digitally-controlled heat treat oven. You get your blades ready for quenching using precise times and temperatures. But then you break out the OA torch! I will not get into the edge quench vs. full quench thing here, but even if you choose to edge quench, why not use the oven? With your limiter plate to control depth of quench you risk nothing, and you get way better control over the final product, no?

Also, on the edge quench, why wait so long to get the point into the oil? It is the thinnest part of the blade, and rather likely to lose heat fast. The ricasso is a heat sink on the way up, but it also holds heat once it comes up to temp. Assuming you are using 1084/15N20 or some similar mixture, why not begin with the point for one or two seconds and then get the rest in the oil? Both your tank and approach seem to mirror a lot of what Ed Fowler does on his video, but remember that he is working with 52100, giving him a lot more time to get his tip into the oil, which even he does painfully slowly.
Click to expand...

Very good questions. For the first question; I wanted to use the torch instead of the oven for this knife because I ONLY wanted to heat the edge of the blade, the rest of the blade above the area I heated must, stay near dead soft. If I were to heat the blade in my Paragon the spine of the blade would not be getting quenched in oil however it would be quenching in air ever so little. On most all of my other blades I do a full quench so the blade will act as more of a spring and not bend. I was very concerned that my test blade might bend while chopping because of how shallow the quench was and how soft the spine was. I chopped and chopped with the test knife to make sure it wouldn't bend while chopping and it held up fine and stayed strait.

For your second question. Yes the tip is likely to lose heat faster and also it will gain heat faster. The tip gets a little hotter than the majority of the edge because of how thin it is so by the time I have quenched the edge for a few seconds the tip has cooled a little to the point where it is near the perfect temp for quenching. When I tested my MS Performance Test knife at home I was very hard on the entire length of the edge and it held up the same.

Very good questions. I hope I have answered them for you and please feel free to ask if you have anymore questions or observations. There are many ways one could go about heat treating the blade for the test, this was the way I am very familiar with from using it on my JS Performance Test. I have done it other ways with good results just not as good.

Thanks, Kyle
 
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