New guy questions.

N

nitsuj

Joined
Feb 9, 2008
Messages
29
I've been lurking here for quite a while. Been meaning to try to make a knife for a long time, but never got around to it. Looking at some of the artwork you guys turn out is really inspiring. I think I'm finally going to quit putting it off and order some steel. My tool selection isn't perfect for knife making, but I think I can get by. Have some files, grinders and such. I've been a motorcycle mechanic for a long time, so I'm not starting with nothing, just nothing purpose built to knife making. I'm lacking most in knowledge, but luckily, I found this forum. A lot of you guys are nothing short of master artists!

I recently left the motorcycle industry and got into the medical one. I'm lucky enough to work in a shop where we maintain and sharpen surgical instruments, the tools at work coupled with what I have at home should have me covered. So I'm ok for material removal, I think. My question is about heat treating. Now, I know I can buy some metal, and I'm pretty confident I can make it into a shape resembling a knife blade. Probably won't be pretty, but, hey, you have to start somewhere! Once my blade is ready for heat treating, I know the easiest thing to do is to send it off for heat treat. But would I be crazy to try it myself? I like to try things, and I don't even really care if I fail. It seems like there are some inexpensive home brew type heat treat set-ups short of having an actual forge. Is there even the slightest chance of my having success with this?

Thanks for any help. Keep up the good work and you experts keep posting pictures of your excellent work to inspire people like me!
 
welcome to bladeforums!

you could heat treat oil quenching steels at home, you could build a small brick forge with 1 or 2 bricks. I used a camp fire, It worked but it didn't make for the best heat treat.
 
my next video is going to be heat treating the 2nd amendment knife i made in the last video. for small blades i have been using my stoves electric burner and a tourch. its not somthing i clame is safe or somthing you should do. but ill show you how i do it.
 
Hey JT, thought you built a fancy dancy forge?

I've done it on the stove too. Just make sure you're wife/girlfriend/mom isn't home, or they'll get upset... :)
 
Thanks for all the advce guys, keep it coming. As for my wife getting upset, she's used to such antics. Very recently, she found the head stock of my lathe in the dishwasher. I needed to clean it in preperation to paint. ;)

I'm a lucky man.
 
my wife is the same way. she will be making dinner and open the oven to see a bunch of knives :D.
 
Renewd: I saw that link. Thanks.

Everyone else: Any thoughts on a kitchen knife as a first attempt? Is there anything that makes a kitchen knife more difficult to make that would cause me to avoid one until I got a little more experienced. Maybe something along the lines of an Asian style vegetable cleaver, like this:http://www.bladegallery.com/shopexd.asp?id=85272

Obviously not as detailed, but you get the general idea. The only snag I see is that maybe that type of handle is harder to make and atach?
 
that would work, its a lot of grinding, you could do a full tang if you want an easier handle, and its a lot of steel to heat treat
 
You can try that cleaver, or if you want, a small paring style knife. The only thing about a kitchen knife, you will want to stay away from stainless steels unless you are willing to send it out for heat treatment or invest in some method of more sophisticated heat treat. Because of the extreme heats (1800+) and longer soak times, you have to protect the steel more than your more basic alloys, and you need to have good temperature control.

O1 heat treats fairly "easily" and it is somewhat forgiving in heat treatment. You'll have to get it up to around 1450* and hold it there for several minutes and then quench in warm (130*) oil. I've never tried to get there with a torch alone, but I know you can do it with a very basic one brick forge. Do a google search for "one brick forge" and you'll find some pics to get the idea. Basically, it's a soft refractory/furnace brick that has been hollowed out with a front opening and a flame hole in the side. You then blow a propane torch in through the side and the inside of the brick heats up and radiates the heat back into the chamber. By moving the blade in and out, you can get the entire blade up to temperature. You'll know you're close by heating the steel until a magnet won't stick any longer (don't heat the magnet with the steel, just pull the blade out and touch it to a magnet). That temp is somewhere near 1375. You'll need to go a bit higher than that. Continue heating the blade, watching it carefully. Soon, you'll notice the steel begin to "come alive" where the glow increases and becomes really iridescent. That's the time to quench. Careful not to overheat your tip while heating it up.

After quenching, test it with a file. It should not bite in and will skate off the blade. You may have a bit of decarb on the surface where the carbon has combined with oxygen and gone AWOL from the steel. This will be ground off or filed/sanded off in final prep. Take your freshly hardened blade and place it in the kitchen oven at 400* for 2 hours. Take it out and let it cool to room temp and repeat. There it is.

Good luck and have fun!

--nathan
 
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