Newbie to knife making.

N

Native1

Joined
Apr 10, 2008
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Hi all,

I'm going to try to make my first knife, and I had a few questions. The steel I will be using is T1 since it will be free. The other one is how to quench this type of steel? What are some files to use? The tools I have access to are limited to a drill press, bench grinder, hack saw, files, and the basic stuff. Any type of in put would be welcome. The style of knife I was thinking about would be a simple fixed blade with a full tang.

Thanks Mike
 
Last edited:
This link might give you some help:

http://www.diehlsteel.com/t1.aspx

Looks like it takes quite a bit of heat to harden fully. 2375F is nothing to sneeze at, and I don't know many furnaces that will run that temp sustained. So that leaves forges, and at that temp, I'd expect some major decarb. Looks like it can quench in oil. I'd definitely heat the oil up first to around 130-140.

Maybe someone else can give you more sound advice. I've never worked with this steel.

--nathan
 
Thanks for the reply. Would an oxyacetylene torch be able to be used for the
quenching?

Thanks Mike
 
You could probably make do. However, I'm not sure by the information I found if there is a hold at temp required. If not, you'd probably be able to do a rudimentary heat treatment using the torch. However, the difficulty comes in judging temperature. Curie point for iron (when it goes non magnetic) is FAR below the hardening temperature listed for T1. It happens somewhere aroung 1414F in iron. Once you're above that, you have no way of judging the temperature of the steel without a good pyromenter or a furnace.

I just don't know enough about this steel to be able to advise you any further. I'd recommend continuing to search for better advice than mine.

--nathan
 
Thanks Nathan for the advice. I will look around for more info on T1 steel.

Thanks Mike
 
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