Newbie trying my hand at two O1 knives

A dime is a lot thicker than most folks think - .053". You want HALF the thickness of a dime on the edge pre-HT.
You want to leave about .025 to .030" on the edge for most carbon steel blades, and .010 to .005" on most stainless blades.
 
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MDelConte said:
Thanks Busto. I will definitely use a steel bucket! Don’t want to burn down my house!!! I used a scrap piece to heat the oil last time and just got a long thermometer to clip on the bucket when I get it. From what I remember reading, the soak is to dissolve the carbides or free up the carbon and get it into the crystalline matrix. Something like that I think. Not a metallurgist but I’m sure you guessed that! Would I get a decent hardened blade if I got it to temp and held for about 30 seconds and quenched?
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Heat Treating is a Recipe that has certain Parameters that have been tested for optimum performance. The Minimum Soak Time for O1 steel is 10 minutes and it's required to get all the carbon into solution. Best analogy is think of Ice Cubes in your drink they don't just touch the side of the glass and POOF melt it takes time for them to dissolve....so your question... would you get decent hardening with 30 second soak...NO....There are two control parameters Time and Temperature and you know time now you need to determine what temperature you are reaching.
 
Thanks for the info. I think I’m going to send these to JT for a proper heat treat. What are your thoughts on the cryogenic treatment he offers? For a few bucks I’d be up for it if it adds to the toughness or edge retention.
 
MDelConte said:
Thanks for the info. I think I’m going to send these to JT for a proper heat treat. What are your thoughts on the cryogenic treatment he offers? For a few bucks I’d be up for it if it adds to the toughness or edge retention.
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Cryogenic treatment works best for Higher Alloy Stainless Steels...I've checked simple steels including O1 with cryo with no appreciable gain in RC hardness. You can spend the money but I doubt you will reap any gains that is my experience and I have Controlled heat treating equipment and Liquid Nitrogen Dewar for Stainless blades.
 
Busto said:
Cryogenic treatment works best for Higher Alloy Stainless Steels...I've checked simple steels including O1 with cryo with no appreciable gain in RC hardness. You can spend the money but I doubt you will reap any gains that is my experience and I have Controlled heat treating equipment and Liquid Nitrogen Dewar for Stainless blades.
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So when I send the blades to JT for a proper HT, will there still be a decarb layer that needs to be ground off or will a proper HT harden it through and through without any significant decarb layer? If it were HT’d using a gas injection system or some anti-scale compound, would there still be a decarb layer? Thanks
 
JT has procedures that greatly reduce decarb. That said, all blades will need some sanding to remove the surface decarb and coloration.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
JT has procedures that greatly reduce decarb. That said, all blades will need some sanding to remove the surface decarb and coloration.
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I just sent the blades off to JT for HT. I am also having them surface ground after. Will I still need to grind through decarb when I get them back or will the finish sanding be enough to get through it to the hardened steel?
 
Surface grinding is not finish sanding. Yes, you will have to finish any knife after HT.
 
Yes, that is what the surface grinding does, along with making parallel sides. It will leave a surface at somewhere around 100-120 grit.
All other surfaces will need the decarb sanded off, and then the whole knife will need the finish sanding steps.
 
Done! Finished a while back and am just getting around to putting up pics of one of the knives. Thanks for all the help folks!
 
Great feeling! I tried uploading a picture but couldn’t get it to stick! Showed in the preview but disappeared after I submitted it....
 
Guess I let my subscription die after the first year... The handle pic is before I finished shaping it but the only pic I had of that area...A0C4BD8F-05E0-489B-AA0B-B70EBB63D411.jpeg 17574013-FB44-4201-813F-AED93C5284C3.jpeg
 
Busto said:
Cryogenic treatment works best for Higher Alloy Stainless Steels...I've checked simple steels including O1 with cryo with no appreciable gain in RC hardness. You can spend the money but I doubt you will reap any gains that is my experience and I have Controlled heat treating equipment and Liquid Nitrogen Dewar for Stainless blades.
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Busto, I’m looking at getting a heat treat oven and am having a hard time finding any schedule information. Looking for temps/soak times for various steels. Currently have some Nitro-V but will be trying some AEB-L in the future as well as more O-1. Seems like this info is a bit difficult to find or I find charts that contradict and don’t provide any soak time info... thanks again for your help when I was making my knives. I uploaded some pics of one of them at the bottom of this thread if you wanted to check them out!
 
For Heat Treating information "Alpha Knife Supply"(AKS) has reference heat treating schedules for blade steels in their inventory. For additional heat treating information use the "Custom Blade Forum" search engine which is in the "Stickys" at the top of this section. Everyone has their own Ideas and Opinions on heat treating. Devin Thomas(HOSS) has in my opinion the Best Schedule for AEB-L you can find it by using the Search Engine.
 
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