New to the forum

J. Hemingway · Oct 10, 2020

Hi all,
I'm new to blade forums, but was pretty regular on BritishBlades back in the day.
I didn't see a new members thread, so I've diving straight in.
I have a whole box full of knife blades in O1, and pretty much no idea where to start.
They are mostly pretty rusty as they've been in the basement for about ten years. But I was hoping to clean them up, grind them, heat treat and temper them.
I need a forge, but I'm not sure how to go about building one, and don't have the cash for a heat treat oven.
I have no welding, electrical, or metallurgical skills.
I do have a hobbyist pillar drill and a belt sander, and a very lightweight bandsaw, and an angle grinder.

If anyone wants to help me out here and point me in the right direction, I would really appreciate it.

All the best,

Josh

Dominick Maone · Oct 10, 2020

https://www.youtube.com/c/WalterSorrellsBlades

Walter has tons if videos on how to make knives. Most are very detailed. A few of his videos show how to make knives with minimal tools. The best thing is to just start. Don’t worry about making perfect blades to start with. Some of my first few blades are my favorite because they got me started.

Hubert S. · Oct 10, 2020

Welcome to the forum, Josh. There are a few sticky threads that are worth reading through, like the "Advice to new and Want-to-be Makers" thread and the "Sticky Threads - All The Good Info You Want In One Place" thread.

If you just want to heat tread a few small blades, you can probably get away with a couple of insulating firebricks, a propane torch and a gallon of canola oil.

Cushing H. · Oct 10, 2020

Hopefully someone will know someone in the UK that does heat treat. Otherwise there are a number of folks on the continent that might be able to help you.

when you say you have a box full of “knife blades”, what to you mean? Are they “blanks” that are already ground and hardened? Are they what we would call “profiles” that have the basic blade shape, but are full thickness all around and still need to be ground and sharpened? Are they forged blanks that need some final grinding and heat treating? Exactly what they are will define what you need to do to them...

J. Hemingway · Oct 10, 2020

Hi guys,
Thanks for all the welcome messages.
In answer to the last question: I have a box of laser cut profiles in 3mm O1. I did grind some very amateurish bevels on about a third of them. But the rest are full thickness.

Code:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/SBYBmyhQqjD983cu5

I remember I had a hard time trying to grind them flat. But now I think I'll probably try to deal with warps at the tempering stage.

When it comes to heating, I reckon I have three options: build a charcoal forge, build a fire brick and propane blowtorch forge, or buy a small propane forge.

I guess I would have to temper in the forge too as I doubt our kitchen oven will be stable enough.

A.McPherson · Oct 13, 2020

Read those sticky threads, there is SO much info in there is just silly!

Your kitchen oven will work fine. If it's good enough to bake in, its good enough for a knife...(at least starting off it is).

J. Hemingway · Oct 13, 2020

A.McPherson said:
Read those sticky threads, there is SO much info in there is just silly!

Your kitchen oven will work fine. If it's good enough to bake in, its good enough for a knife...(at least starting off it is).

Well that could be a problem, as baking in that oven is like trying to toast marshmallows under a space shuttle.

A.McPherson · Oct 13, 2020

J. Hemingway said:
Well that could be a problem, as baking in that oven is like trying to toast marshmallows under a space shuttle.

Lol! I feel your pain!
We just got a new oven after struggling the with the one in our rental for a year. That stupid thing had no thermometer in it at all, and just had a set dial that you could sort of control the temp on...
Baking bread was a real challenge!
But it did a good job on my blades... But that took some time finding out where it would hold temp with a couple of oven thermometers and allot of patience!

Britt_Askew · Oct 13, 2020

J. Hemingway said:
When it comes to heating, I reckon I have three options: build a charcoal forge, build a fire brick and propane blowtorch forge, or buy a small propane forge.

I guess I would have to temper in the forge too as I doubt our kitchen oven will be stable enough.

I would go with a fourth option to heat treat O1 , buy or build a heat treat oven. O1 needs to soak at temp and that would be much easier to accomplish with an oven.