Order to heat treat and rust blue?

P

Primordial

Joined
Jul 8, 2013
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Having nearly finished grinding out my first real attempt at a functional knife, I have realized that I have no idea whether I heat treat the blade, then rust blue, or vice versa. If I rust blue first, then sharpen, then heat treat, will the heating/hardening process ruin the bluing? And if I heat treat first, won't the coating of rust destroy the sharpened edge, which will be much more difficult to file after heat treating? I have no idea, but would like to do a good job on my first real project.
 
Hi, You have to heat treat the blade before you rust blue it. I recently rust blued a Damascus blade that I had etched a bit deeper than usual and the process didn't effect the steel finish much, just gave it a slight satin look. I sharpened the blade after the blueing process.


Doug
 
And don't sharpen it until after you heat treat it and put the handle on. Sharpening is always the last step for a knife.
 
Ok, thanks. Do I need a special (harder) file to sharpen after heat treating? I have a knife sharpening kit, but I think that it's for maintaining an edge.
 
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