Opinions needed on Magnacut.

I heat treated 4 Magnacut blades today. Two were no grind and scale that I was heat treating for a friend and two were my own that I ground off mill scale to 0.090 inches and ground 10 dps bevels to 0.020 inches.

All were subjected to a stress leaving step. Zero warp and zero issue with foil welding.
 
Seedy Lot said:
I heat treated 4 Magnacut blades today. Two were no grind and scale that I was heat treating for a friend and two were my own that I ground off mill scale to 0.090 inches and ground 10 dps bevels to 0.020 inches.

All were subjected to a stress leaving step. Zero warp and zero issue with foil welding.
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Good to know. On the two blades I made I didn't perform a stress relief cycle. I will definitely do one next time. I will also grind AFTER heat treatment.

I really like Magnacut. I will probably wrap the "ugly" blade's handle with paracord and beat the crap out of it in our 1/4 acre urban jungle. It's at .010 behind the edge and I think my heat treatment was good as the first blade I broke was fine grained. Picture of "ugly" knife. I got it wicked sharp and I'm no pro at sharpening, so I question the talk about it being hard to sharpen. On the bright side I have a beater knife with a nice edge in a quality steel!
 
HPD said:
Quick background: I've been making knives as a hobby for a few years. I just purchased a 2x72 belt sander. Previously I was using a file jig and a 1x30. Consequently, in the past I've typically ground my bevels as much as I can pre-HT. With something like AEB-L, I've kept it pretty thick and managed to keep the warping to a minimum. With 1084 and 52100, I've keep them thin and had no problems with warping.

I've done two Magnacut blades with 1/8 stock.. The first one ended up looking like fried bacon out of the plates and I broke it trying to straighten it even though I had tempered it first. It was that warped. The second blade warped but not as bad. I had left it thicker. In fact, it was thick enough that a combination of straightening and grinding away material made a usable blade, a butt ugly but functionally excellent one. I did the standard recommended 2050 for 25 minutes and 350 temper.

Questions:

What are your opinions on the level of warping with 1/8 stock if I do my grinding post-HT?
What are your opinions on reducing my soak temperature to 2000 to avoid warping. Will that help or will it be unnecessary?
Any other tips on reducing the chance of warping?

I AM going to figure out Magnacut and it will be one of my go-to steels. I just need to figure it out.

Thanks,
S.E. Vines
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Follow up for other intermediate and beginning makers. I just heat treated two AEB-L blades and a Magnacut kitchen knife I'm making for the wife. The AEB-L specimens have minor warping. Really not that bad, but noticable when put on a flat surface. The Magnacut blade has very minor warping, almost non-existent. I followed the advice to just profile and drill handle holes before heat treat. I also did a stress relief cycle on the Magnacut knife. One thing I did notice is that they all bowed in the same direction, probably due to placing on the bottom plate for a split second before the top plate. But again, nothing a few whacks with a carbide tip won't fix. Thanks again for the advice.
 
HPD said:
Follow up for other intermediate and beginning makers. I just heat treated two AEB-L blades and a Magnacut kitchen knife I'm making for the wife. The AEB-L specimens have minor warping. Really not that bad, but noticable when put on a flat surface. The Magnacut blade has very minor warping, almost non-existent. I followed the advice to just profile and drill handle holes before heat treat. I also did a stress relief cycle on the Magnacut knife. One thing I did notice is that they all bowed in the same direction, probably due to placing on the bottom plate for a split second before the top plate. But again, nothing a few whacks with a carbide tip won't fix. Thanks again for the advice.
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I use to have a consistent warp in one direction as well and finally figured it must be the plates like you are saying. I now pause for a few seconds between oven and plates to let the blank air cool a little and now have no issues.
 
Here's the Magnacut kitchen knife I made for the wife. The plunge lines were even and clean, but I nicked the ricasso area on both sides (first time using a 2x72). I therefore decided to not use a ricasso! The finish isn't as good as I wanted, but polishing this steel is tough. I just took it up to 120 and then hand sanded to 220.
https://imgur.com/IFRCXxA
 
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+1 for grinding after heat treatment.

Profile, drill, then all grinding after hardening.

At least if you want to avoid dealing with warps. For me an extra coarse belt is worth it for me. Though magnacut i feel like isn't as bad to grind as some steels.
 
Blankblank said:
+1 for grinding after heat treatment.

Profile, drill, then all grinding after hardening.

At least if you want to avoid dealing with warps. For me an extra coarse belt is worth it for me. Though magnacut i feel like isn't as bad to grind as some steels.
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I'm grinding an AEB-L blade now and it's almost too easy to grind. Harder too grind doesn't seem like it's necessarily a bad thing because the less material you remove each pass the less chance you have of making an uncorrectable mistake.
 
HPD said:
Here's the Magnacut kitchen knife I made for the wife. The plunge lines were even and clean, but I nicked the ricasso area on both sides (first time using a 2x72). I therefore decided to not use a ricasso! The finish isn't as good as I wanted, but polishing this steel is tough. I just took it up to 120 and then hand sanded to 220.
https://imgur.com/IFRCXxA
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Also. Im sure someone probably mentioned it at some point in this thread. But diamond microfinishing films are a godsend for polishing wear resistant steels.
 
HPD said:
I'm grinding an AEB-L blade now and it's almost too easy to grind. Harder too grind doesn't seem like it's necessarily a bad thing because the less material you remove each pass the less chance you have of making an uncorrectable mistake.
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Yeah. I honestly don't mind it too much myself. Having to grind wear resistant stuff that is.
 
All the advice given here has helped me a ton. I'm going to become a paid member. For anyone interested, I just finished a blade with .134" Magnacut at an estimated 61.5 Rockwell (2030F, dry ice slurry, and 2x2hx350F temper). It's a full flat grind with a convexed edge because I screwed up the high flat grind I was going for! This was my first freehand grind, but I did use a homemade plunge line jig (also made of Magnacut). I used blue Richlite scales with copper Corby bolts and a black carbon fiber pin. Even with diamond microfinishing film as recommended by Blankblank in this thread, this stuff was a pain to finish. I decided to etch the blade with ferric chloride and make an inexpensive (but nice I think) handle. This will be a user. I had fun making this blade and was surprised it turned out as nice as it did despite it having a few flaws. I'm planning on experimenting with thinner "survival" and camp knives as I think most knives are overbuilt. However, I think I'm going to take a break from Magancut until my skill level improves. I'll stick to AEB-L and 52100 for the "experiments" for now.
WBis5Ap.jpg
CYDasDN.jpg
 
I like the blue and copper look!

Youtube knocked the quality down, but you can still see the finish on 64 HRC magnacut. I did the flats to around 600, blade bevels are flat ground to 400 grit compact grain belt, then a ceramic Norax A 30 or A16 belt and finished with an 800 grit cork belt with some polishing compound in the belt. The compact grain abrasives work really well and I just got an order of them up to 1200 grit I can't wait to try out!


For hand sanding, EDM stones work really quickly to remove the belt grinder scratches and leave a nice surface to progress with hand sanding. I did a 210mm S grind gyuto in magnacut with a 600 grit hand rub and it wasn't really bad. S90V is MUCH harder to polish!
 
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HPD said:
All the advice given here has helped me a ton. I'm going to become a paid member. For anyone interested, I just finished a blade with .134" Magnacut at an estimated 61.5 Rockwell (2030F, dry ice slurry, and 2x2hx350F temper). It's a full flat grind with a convexed edge because I screwed up the high flat grind I was going for! This was my first freehand grind, but I did use a homemade plunge line jig (also made of Magnacut). I used blue Richlite scales with copper Corby bolts and a black carbon fiber pin. Even with diamond microfinishing film as recommended by Blankblank in this thread, this stuff was a pain to finish. I decided to etch the blade with ferric chloride and make an inexpensive (but nice I think) handle. This will be a user. I had fun making this blade and was surprised it turned out as nice as it did despite it having a few flaws. I'm planning on experimenting with thinner "survival" and camp knives as I think most knives are overbuilt. However, I think I'm going to take a break from Magancut until my skill level improves. I'll stick to AEB-L and 52100 for the "experiments" for now.
WBis5Ap.jpg
CYDasDN.jpg
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The diamond microfinishing films work pretty well for me. Magnacut definitely wasn't as easy to finish as carbon steel stuff, but isn't too bad. I use the films 10v, and they do pretty well on that even. Though their could possibly be things with the technique in how to get the most of them.

Like i cut them into strips, and use the strips until the piece isn't cutting anymore (though ones that aren't cutting stuff like 10v well anymore still work on normal steel just fine so i save them). When I'm using a fresh piece. Always use light pressure. Using too much pressure will prematurely dull it. Let the diamond do the work for you. Also, i go up to 120 grit, i havent found any belts i really like for wear resistant steels above 120 yet (i mean more for stuff like 10v, k390 etc. Than magnacut)

And start with the coarsest diamond film available (if not even starting on my bonded diamond whetstones for polishing) and i stop around 45 micron i think normally. Whatever the yellow film is.

Also. I recently picked up this variety pack of chinese made diamond microfinishing films on amazon. They are actually just as good as the 3m ones from what i can tell so far.
 
Tested the latest blade. Got it pretty sharp (hair and notebook paper shavings) but not as sharp as possible. Approximately 30 degrees inclusive and .013 behind the edge. Split some CA Buckeye and Mexican Elderberry logs, made a feather stick with some CA Redwood, made a "one-log" fire with the buckeye where you split a small log, carve and notch a fireboard and spindle, and make shavings, "toothpicks," "pencils," and thumb-sized kindling, and then start a bow-drill fire. I also hacked some butterfly bush branches and got the blade stuck in a knotted log (it flexed a bit but was fine). The blade was still shaving sharp and still cut notebook paper when I was done, though it had dulled a bit. Stropped it back up and it was as sharp as before. Everyone who makes knives and has an oven should try this steel. This 11.25" overall, 6.7 ounce knife is going to be my pack/camper blade for awhile. Too much flex for a survival knife. The balance is just in front of the index finger. A little larger handle (which is needed) will make it very balanced. It feels light in hand.
 
HPD said:
Tested the latest blade. Got it pretty sharp (hair and notebook paper shavings) but not as sharp as possible. Approximately 30 degrees inclusive and .013 behind the edge. Split some CA Buckeye and Mexican Elderberry logs, made a feather stick with some CA Redwood, made a "one-log" fire with the buckeye where you split a small log, carve and notch a fireboard and spindle, and make shavings, "toothpicks," "pencils," and thumb-sized kindling, and then start a bow-drill fire. I also hacked some butterfly bush branches and got the blade stuck in a knotted log (it flexed a bit but was fine). The blade was still shaving sharp and still cut notebook paper when I was done, though it had dulled a bit. Stropped it back up and it was as sharp as before. Everyone who makes knives and has an oven should try this steel. This 11.25" overall, 6.7 ounce knife is going to be my pack/camper blade for awhile. Too much flex for a survival knife. The balance is just in front of the index finger. A little larger handle (which is needed) will make it very balanced. It feels light in hand.
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I find this steel gets some very undeserved hate. Mostly from end users that bought overly soft production pocket knives in it. Calling it "magnasoft", or "magnahype". Which I won't lie does frustrate me a little. Not that they don't like it. Thats fine, but the reasons they think it isn't good. They really have no clue what they are talking about. Usually its people that prefer cruwear/zwear. Which really doesn't get ran at above 64-65 at the highest by pretty much anyone anyway. Which is completely obtainable with magnacut.

That aside. From me using it so far. I actually really like it. I use bonded diamond stones to sharpen these steels, and it sharpens up just as well as you would expect from any 63-65 hrc medium carbide volume tool steel. Takes a very keen edge. And the good edge stability, and wear resistance leads to it holding it pretty well.
 
Recently I bought a few Shapton Pro stones as a friend kept recommending them. I was happy how the stones worked with Magnacut. I used the 320, 1000, and 2000 stones and the Magnacut knife came off the 2000 grit stone acceptably keen.
 
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It's been almost a year. I haven't been making as many knives because of work and vegetable gardening (I try to grow most of our produce during the summer), but I've been bitten by the bug again. I revisited this knife and was so impressed by the steel that I just ordered some more Magnacut (also 3V and A2). Yeah, it's a pain in the ass to work with limited tools, has a tendency to warp (not unique in this regard) and the edge will likely bacon on you if you grind your bevels too much pre-HT (again, not unique), but I love the steel. A tip that's helped me keep it sharp is to get some vegetable tanned leather, make your own strop and get a some Venev diamond sharpening paste of Amazon. I use the 3 micron paste and it keeps my blade going for awhile. Just use a heat gun to melt it into the leather. Works great for me.
 
I've been ising a cheap 400/1000 diamond stone and the Venev 14 micron and 3 micron pastes on leather for all of my knives and it works great! I got the 1 micron and some coarser stuff, but havent tried it yet. Nice to be able to refresh s90v quickly with the strop too!
 
Taz said:
I've been ising a cheap 400/1000 diamond stone and the Venev 14 micron and 3 micron pastes on leather for all of my knives and it works great! I got the 1 micron and some coarser stuff, but havent tried it yet. Nice to be able to refresh s90v quickly with the strop too!
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Cool. I noticed Amazon has an 8-sample pack of the Venev pastes with 1 and .5 micron samples included.
 
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