How To Newbie questions

T

Texas Al

Joined
May 23, 2020
Messages
2
Hey all,

I’m just getting into knife making and am struggling with heat treatment. I’ve built a home made forge out of a paint can, using equal parts of sand and plaster of Paris to insulate. Try as I may, I can’t get my blade up to heat for treatment. I spent 30 minutes the other night, achieved an orange glow but the metal was still magnetic.

I tried again tonight after repositioning my blow touch but no luck. I’m fact my blade formed a few flakes...

What rookie mistakes am I making ?
 
Plaster and sand is not a very good refractory so you are probably losing a lot of heat.
Line the can with something like fibrefrax, something thats good to about 2000F.
The better the insulation(refractory) the faster you'll hit temp.

you can make a small forge with some firebrick, the kind they use for outdoor grills. Just make sure the brick is rated for the temps you need
 
Last edited:
Thanks Jideta, is the flaking normal or do you think I’ve damaged the steel (1084) ? I heated it for around 30 minutes
 
That’s just a little scale, if the steel never went nonmagnetic no harm was done.

Sounds like you are loosing too much heat for the amount you are putting in. You need a better refractory lining your forge.
 
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