o-1 heat treat tip!!

C

cutline blades

Joined
Oct 4, 2000
Messages
108
hi all,when i heat treat O-1i use carl schroen`s technique,coffee can , 1/3 borax , the rest filled with water ,bring to a boil,making sure all the borax is dissolved,you are ready to dip the blade.Now i used to only dip the blade in once or twice but now i dip at least 10 or 15 times with about 5 seconds between dippings,once done dipping i hang over the wood stove to dry (10 minutes or so) it dryes clear once dryed i fire up the forge run it real cool and run the blade in and out a bunch of times,watching the borax mixture on the blade turn from clear to a frosty sorta look then it`s ready to heat treat,i heat evenly till the magnet doesn`t stick and then heat just a bit more , then go instantly from forge to vegetable oil heated to 130 degrees and what used to be scale i guess is what i call it you know the black crap that is hard to sand off,but anyway the scale just flakes off and if you coated the steel good enough you will have little to no scale sanding at all i go right into sanding for a mirror polish.the only thing i do different from years before is dip the blade a whole lot more...saves a lot of greif
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sorry for writing a book for ya all hope it`s helpfull!

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i keep grinding and grinding and it is still too short!!
 
Is this method for primarily dealing with scale or does it provide a better heat treat? In other words are you gonna get a better blade from doing it this way?

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" I am a shootist."
Clay Allison
" Does this mean we are bladists?"
Vaquero57
McAlpin Bladesmithing
 
vaquero
hey i`m not sure if it produces a better blade but it sure cuts down on belt and disc wear..my blades consistantly come out at 60 rockwell!!after tempering

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i keep grinding and grinding and it is still too short!!
 
What kind of Borax? Where can I find it?
I am a blender for BG Products (we make gas and oil products) and we have industrial grade Borax available would that work?

Thanks

Steve45
 
Thanks for the tip. I can't wait to try it. I'm guessing that this technique would work on any high carbon steel: 1095, 52100, L6 damascus... Is this the case? I'm somewhat surprised that repeated dipping with only a few seconds between each adds additional protection. I could see it if each application was fully dried before the next one. Please let me know your thoughts.
 
all i know is that ever since i started multiple dippings that scale just flakes right off , with one or two dippings i always had that hard black crap to grind off , if i had a scanner i would go out and heat treat one just to show you guys...man it`s the ticket!!....oh!!! and a little shop tip DON`T let grinding dust get in that mixture!! that happened once last year and after i dipped i seen a bunch of specs on the blade ...thought ahhh that won`t hurt any but after heat treat them little specs were melted right to the steel and would have taken quite the sanding to get off...i left it on ..polished it and called it COOL!! learning experience!!...wow anothe book for ya guys!!
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i keep grinding and grinding and it is still too short!!
 
Great tip! I'll give it a try. What temperature do you temper your O-1 blades at to come out with a 60RC?
 
Do you do a differential heat treat quench (just thhe cutting edge), or do you quench the hole blade.
 
hi all...i quench the whole blade,then i temper at 350 degrees for an hour let cool then temper again for an hour and that gives me 60 rockwell every time on my little 3 inch hunters.for blades like those or blades that will see some abuse i put about 1/3 of the knife under wet sand ( obviously the cutting edge ) the i draw back the spine till it turns bright blue gets an O-1 blade about as tough as i know how ,there may be better ways ..but this is what has been working for me!! i havent done just an edge quench yet ..because i think that the spine would be so soft that it would be subject to those nasty deep scratches that does not look good for a mirror polished blade...just my 2 bits.....soon i will post some pics...right now i`m waiting for the shop to warm up , it`s -20 celcius out there right now...J&B weld doesn`t set up too good when it`s that cold!!
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....and yet another book!!

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i keep grinding and grinding and it is still too short!!
 
I used this a couple weeks ago. The Borax dip does work. I only dipped once but there was a significant improvement over not using it. I have a few more blades due for heat treat I will post my results with multiple dipping in Borax. I am sure they will be the same as posted here.

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