New at forging

tito

tito

Joined
May 30, 2006
Messages
670
I haven't made many at a forge, so I'm trying to cut my teeth - I'm trading this one on a European mount for a whitetail I killed last fall. The heat treat line came out really bold on this one, so I wanted to post a pic. I'm still experimenting a lot with the heat treatment, but this one held an edge - not like a cpm steel with cryo, but ok.

1095, differential heat treat, Cocobolo
3 1/4" blade, 8 1/4" OAL
Sheath is treated with Snowseal

thanks, comments welcome.
 

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Thanks again.

Flatgrinder, thanks for the link, that was good news. I don't have a way to test hardness - at least not Rockwell. It took more effort to sharpen, but that could have been from other variables (I thought initially I hadn't set the edge bevel shallow enough prior to finish sharpening, but that wasn't the case). I should be able to draw better conclusions after I make a few more, hopefully.

I quenched in Brownell's oil - it was pretty close to 100 deg ambient, and the oil was in my garage - I was concerned it might be too warm, but did it anyway. I have a thermometer now, so I don't have to worry about it. At any rate, my file skated off the edge and dug into the tang.

My favorite way to test edge retention (I sort of loop hardness and wear resistance into this one method) is by skinning deer, which is my intended purpose most of the time. Not the most scientific, but I don't have as much experience with other testing methods - testing seems like its own art. I've dressed/skinned hundreds of deer, so I know if I've met my goals at the end of one. This one performed well - like I said, not the best I've ever seen, but good. It's really good to know there's a lot of potential for this steel.

-Coty
 
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