Oh no...I've gone and done it.

Cool info there...I grew up with workhorse user blades that we'd hand sharpen on a stone between uses so I guess maybe I am not very particular about performance...I think my brain just lumps steels into "good" and "junk" so I probably would be satisfied with 1095 performance where most people would want INFI.

I have a bit of a throwback approach to knives - picture an old guy saying things like "springy carbon steel...good knife stuff" and that's probably about where my head is at.

But I don't deny that there is a difference there and I guess I better get reading!

Thanks for the links, I will read through those tonight for sure.
 
Well, I went and heat treated the knife today!

I have been going back and forth about how to best do this, but eventually something just snapped and last night I fired up my torches.

But after messing around for half an hour I couldn't figure out how to keep the whole thing hot enough to quench!

I was pretty frustrated because I was going to head off camping this morning,,,but I ended up deciding to wait a day and spend today working on the knife. Here's what it looked like this morning:

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The first thing I did was try to get my hands on parts to build a little oven, but everybody in town wanted either a couple of weeks to order something, or else they wanted me to buy ten times the amount I needed.

All right, fuck it. We'll do it live.

So I dumped a ton of charcoal in the barbeque and lit it up. I jammed the knife into the charcoal, and started feeding it air with a hair dryer on cold.

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Here's the happy knifemaker...

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I stuck some rare-earth magnets to the handle of a file, and once the whole thing was demagnetized, I waited for about ten or fifteen minutes, hoping I wasn't getting the middle too hot. Then I quenched it in oil...old motor oil. Yes, classy!

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I don't have a ton of experience with quenching...but this is about ten times as much fire as I've ever seen before! Big chunk of steel I guess.

Um, now it won't go out. Where is the fire extinguisher!? Right here! I blasted the oil with the fire extinguisher.

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Those things have more pressure than I realized and so a little bit of me got splashed with the burning oil which stung a little. But I was not too worried about that as I had to clean up this mess:

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This was literally a LOL moment. Woops!

It was at this moment I noticed I had put a nice warp in the blade. ARRGH! I guess the center had gotten too hot, and sagged a little. I was very disapppointed.

I was too pissed off to take pictures for a bit, but I stoked the fire back up and got the blade good and hot again. This time I took a little 4lb hammer and banged it straight again.

After a little screwing around, I got it pretty straight. I put it on my glass lapping block to test it and once I could get it to contact the whole way across again I was happy. Actually relieved is more the word!

This time I used three times as much oil, in an old ammo crate:

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I didn't get a pic of the quenching but here is the post-quench picture:

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So there you have it! It's in the oven baking away right now at about 450 farenheit; I will pull it out in a few minutes and let it cool, then temper it again.

Then it will just be a matter of SLOOOOWLY grinding off the now hopefully hard, yet springy and maybe shock resistant steel!

More pics will follow when it's looking decent!

Thanks for looking.
 
Looks good...I cant wait to see it finished... what handle material did you pick out? Sorry if you already answered this. Gene
 
Man, you are some kind of crazy! Glad whoever was taking the pic was behind you when you let loose with that extinguisher.:D

Hope that blade comes out real nice, can't wait to see the finished product.
 
Coming along pretty well. :thumbup: One thing about O1, if it bends after quench, you can straighten it while it's cooling.
Scott
 
mapper66 said:
Man, you are some kind of crazy! Glad whoever was taking the pic was behind you when you let loose with that extinguisher.:D

Hope that blade comes out real nice, can't wait to see the finished product.
Click to expand...

I know I speak for all of us..I hope the same person helping out with the pics is gonna model the blade when its finished!!:D
 
gunknifenut said:
I know I speak for all of us..I hope the same person helping out with the pics is gonna model the blade when its finished!!:D
Click to expand...


yeah, I was gonna say something about short-shorts and hot oil, but I thought I better not....
 
Gossman Knives said:
Coming along pretty well. :thumbup: One thing about O1, if it bends after quench, you can straighten it while it's cooling.
Scott
Click to expand...

Hmm...if I had known this beforehand there probably would have been less swearing involved.

I will keep you guys updated for sure...I should have snapped a couple of pics of "the model" while I was doing the work, she was all dressed up and it was pretty funny, her handing me tools and buckets of oil dressed in one of her fancy outfits...LOL!

The neighbours are probably torn between enjoying the view, and having to put up with my bizarre projects under construction at 2 a.m.

Anyway the handle will be micarta...I have been experimenting with methods of getting a rattlesnake skin look but haven't quite got what I'm after yet.
 
That reminds me of when I use to oil quench A2. I was about to quench a large blade similar to this one. I use 5 gallons of quench oil in a mortar can. In order to eliminate extreme flame up, you need to submerge the entire blade quick. I didn't with this particular blade and the flame rode right up my arm and shinged my beard. :eek: Edge quenching, you need something to extinguish the fire.
Scott
 
Re: short-shorts and hot oil

I have always had a soft spot for girls wrestling in oil. Well, it starts as a soft spot, anyway.

I have actually tried to convince Erin for ages to set up an all-girl mudwrestling league but no go. She has this book club that is a little x-rated but this really isn't the place to discuss it I guess!
 
Gossman Knives said:
That reminds me of when I use to oil quench A2. I was about to quench a large blade similar to this one. I use 5 gallons of quench oil in a mortar can. In order to eliminate extreme flame up, you need to submerge the entire blade quick. I didn't with this particular blade and the flame rode right up my arm and shinged my beard. :eek: Edge quenching, you need something to extinguish the fire.
Scott
Click to expand...


LOL! Wow, beard singeing is a little too exciting for me. If I had more oil I could manage a complete quench but hopefully this will be sufficient. As long as I don't get any terrible fractures I guess I can do it again if it's too soft or something.
 
Did you run a file along the edge to see if it skates?
Scott
 
I would describe the skating as "moderate." It feels about like an axe to me. I don't know if that's as hard as I would have liked or not.

You could definitely cut it with a file but it wouldn't be quick.

Although I can feel a bit of a difference between the ricasso area and the rest of the blade...I guess I didn't have it as hot there.
 
misanthropist said:
Re: short-shorts and hot oil

I have always had a soft spot for girls wrestling in oil. Well, it starts as a soft spot, anyway.

I have actually tried to convince Erin for ages to set up an all-girl mudwrestling league but no go. She has this book club that is a little x-rated but this really isn't the place to discuss it I guess!
Click to expand...

You do have my email address, don't you?:confused:

Doc
 
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