Newbie looking for a heat treating service.

E

echaupiper

Joined
Jan 6, 2010
Messages
5
A helpful member directed me to this sub-forum...

Hello all,

First post and not sure if this is in the right sub-forum, so please direct me to the appropriate sub-forum if I'm posting in the wrong one.

I'm working on a knife with my sons and am using a 1055 steel blank for our first test run. I should have done more research and got a different steel, but that's beside the point.

I don't plan on buying a kiln and was planning on sending the piece out for heat treatment after shaping and grinding a bevel into the blade. Does the Forum have any suggestions on where to send it? Which company that will do Carbon Steel, not just Stainless alloys? I'm in CA.

Again, please forgive any mis-posting or using bad terminology.

Thanks in advance,

Ed :thumbup:
 
Delbert Ealy here on the forums does HT. Google his name to find his web site.
 
Hi Ed im kelly w from saskatchewan canada. I send out all my blades to Rob Ridley . Ranger Original he does a good job and has just started to do carbon steel . I have bad news for you, the steel you chose will not hold a edge. Use that as a practice blade then get some 1095 . I havent ever heard of anyone using less than 1080 . I use mostly cpm154 and Ive never worried about a thing.
 
1055 only has .55% carbon which is not enough to get it very hard or have any edge holding capacity. you want to use a steel with at least .77% C. 1095, and 1080/84 are good steels not fancy, but they will get very hard, and hold a really sharp edge, and they are cheep you can get enough for 4-6 knives for $20 from Aldo if he still has any left.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=684654
 
I just got the news that my first two blades are being tempered by Rob right now:thumbup::D:thumbup:

They are doing NDT on oil quenched blades to look for micro cracks now too. Rob is on the forums too as Knifemaker.ca great people to work with, and consider myself lucky to have been pointed in thier direction
 
echaupiper said:
Thanks for the responses. Good thing I haven't put too much time into the 1055 as yet.

Ed
Click to expand...

Ed

First let me say, I have never worked with 1055 steel. While it is true that 1055 steel is a little low on carbon, you may still be able to get it hard enough to make a decent knife. There are many commercial made knives on the market made from worse steel. The range of carbon for 1055, is supposedly from .5 to .6%, if you happen to be toward the lower end you may not get hard enough. According to the Heat treater's Guide a Rockwell hardness of 60 to 64 (before tempering) is attainable. If you don't want to send it off for heat treat, you might as well try to harden it your self. Normalizing is recommended, Heat to about 1625F and let air cool the reheat 1525F (or slightly above non magnetic) and quench in water. I would use chilled water and plunge it in tip first. Temper at 350F for an hour, remove from oven and once it hits room temp knock the black off and check the cutting edge with a fine tooth file to see if it bites or slides. If it slides you are good, if it bites and slides you are still good just not as good. If if bites everywhere, you can use it in the garden! If it is a keeper, clean up the blade to at least 220 grit. Then put a quarter inch of water in a cake pan and hold the blade edge down in the water while running a propane torch down the spine. Let the color run down toward the cutting edge. The water will keep the cutting edge from getting too hot. You will have to stay alert near the tip and rock the belly of the blade up or down to keep the section not in the water from getting too hot.

I do agree with the other gentlemen in that 1055 is not the best choice of steel for a blade, but it will work.

Just a note the above method is not the best method, just one which will work if you have nothing other than a gas burner or a bed of charcoal to heat with. I'm sure I'll get a ration of grief for this post!:D

Jim Arbuckle ABS JS
 
i would not try differentially quenching your blade as Damneng sugested, cheifly because you probably dont have a tourch that can get hot enough.
That said he may be right about the 1055, you might want to try heat treating it as much for the practice, as for the end result. Try doing it yourself, even if it doesnt work you and your kids can have alot of fun doing it, try to find something (or somethings) large that either doesn't burn, or resist burning (even a large log would do) and stack up allot of charcoal against it add a leaf blower for extra heat and some lighter fluid and youve got a fantastic Saturday in the making!
 
Thanks to everyone helping a newbie out.

Did some more research on the steel I thought was 1055. It's a blank from the Camillus factory. I looked at the Cold Steel website, found the shaped blank and just assumed it was the same stuff as currently listed on the CS site.

After reading some other threads concerning Camillus and Cold Steel, I'm pretty sure now that the steel is Carbon V or 0170-6 or 50100-B. Still working on the project, but feel a bit better about metal.

Luck favors fools and drunks and since I don't drink much, I'm pretty lucky to find this forum and the good people in it.

Still looking for someone to heat treat carbon steel. Texas Knife Supply and Paul Bos don't seem to HT carbon steel, Rob Ridley is pretty far away, but looking good and haven't googled Delbert Ealy yet.

Thanks all!

Ed
 
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