Need Help with heat treating (York, PA)

T

TLentscher

Joined
Jan 21, 2025
Messages
1
Hello, I currently have a knife I’ve been working on over winter break from school. I attempted to heat treat with a propane torch and a mini “forge” I have. I couldn’t get the knife high enough to temp so a file will still dig into the steel. Is there anyone in the area that could help with fixing the blade, or that I could send it to? I’m not to sure if the process of heat treating has changed now that I attempted it once as I’m still new to this, so any help or suggested would be greatly appreciated.
 
Welcome to Shop Talk, T. Lentscher.

If no one in your area pipes up, I would be glad to HT it for you.

When you post about a blade or project, give the steel type and any data on the blade, like size and shape.
 
Attempting heat treat once shouldn't change the process; you can repeat the heat (austenitization) and quench. It's possible there is more decarburization on the outside to deal with due to time in the fire.
One common problem is not grinding through the decarb layer (often less than 1 mm) before testing for hardness. This has caught me for sure.
If you're sure that a low temperature was the problem, you can try using MAPP gas instead of propane.

If you'd like to look up someone local, Derick Kemper at Damselfly Forge is very close by, but I won't make promises on his availability.

Good luck!
 
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