Newbie, again….

D

Dirtyphil71

Joined
Jun 22, 2022
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16
I only had a couple years of trying to make knives and then got divorced and moved north for my first love… fly fishing. I haven’t had a place to work until a couple months ago. I have a bunch of blades that I had heat treated by a fella on this site. I realized I’d like to move some drill holes around be&ore I handle them.
Is this the right way to go about this:
Wrap tempered blade with wet cloth and heat up the tang so I can drill a few more and bigger holes (for new mosaic pins)? As long as I don’t overheat the blade I’m good? Or will that weaken the blade overall?
Thanks!
 
You might have to re-anneal the blade and then have it heat treated again. If it's already hardened, it can be almost impossible to drill holes after the fact.
Or you might try a really good carbide tipped drill bit...
I haven't had much success myself drilled holes after HT
 
a carbide bit with TiN and solid fixtures should do the trick.
 
If you're just widening existing holes, it's fairly easy using masonry carbide bits. You have to sharpen the masonry bit first, because they're made for masonry, not steel. I sharpened one a few days ago using the eze lap diamond paddles. Took probably 10 minutes to sharpen and I widened a hole from 3/16 to 5/16. Took about 30 seconds on 1/8" 60rockwell 154CM. When you drill, don't go ape on it and use cutting oil.

The arrowhead shaped ones might work too, but this is the style of bit I've always used.
 
Dirtyphil71 said:
So no go with heating that small area to take out the hardness with a propane torch?
Click to expand...
As long as you can keep the blade cooler than tempering temperature you won't damage the blade at all. Wrapping in wet cloth while heating the tang is a good way to do that. You can also submerge the blade in water with tang in the air and spot heat the tang. You might need to slowly cool the tang to prevent it from re-hardening. You didn't mention what alloy the blade is - some are air hardening.
 
Take an angle grinder and cut a groove from existing hole to wherever you want pin placement. Or between the existing holes. Lightens blade, more purchase area for epoxy and unlimited options for pin placement
 
Dirtyphil71 said:
O-1 and 52100.
Click to expand...
Heat area you want to 1000-1200f. This will be a very dull red or just start to glow in a dark room. Do not go any higher into non magnetic territory or you can have issues with rehardening some, especially the o1. Keep blade cool. Do this twice with air cool to room temp each time. Then drill with sharp bit and oil slowly. This is a high temper and should be machineable.
 
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