Oyster Knife - First knife ever, heat treat?

C

Chrissc698

Joined
Feb 2, 2017
Messages
98
Hi all,

My wife and I love steaming oysters. We have plenty of the cheap oyster knives, but I would like to try making one myself. I'm not expecting to end up with anything too fancy - an angle grinder, hand file and wet stone are the tools I have at hand.

My question - I don't really have any way to do a heat treat. Any reason I need to heat treat? Could I just choose a metal and grind without heat treat? If so, what metal should I pick?

Thanks!
 
I’m not sure about this ...but commenting to follow along. My **guess** is no real need to harden ..but my guess is Stacy (based on location :-). ) will have a definitive statement. Peripherally, I am interested in the related(I think?) question about letter openers (one of which I am thinking about making for my wife....)
 
I make oyster knives in batches of 50 to 75. I use AEB-L now. I harden to Rc59-60. Hardening is necessary as far as I am concerned.
Could you make/use an unhardened blade .... sure, but you could say the same for any knife. An unhardened oyster knife would be of lesser quality than your current cheap commercial ones.

You don't have any info in your profile so I don't know where you live, but most folks who have a HT oven would be glad to do an AEB-L blade for you for free. If you send it to me I would be glad to harden it. Filling out your profile will help us help you.
 
I would think titanium would not make a good oyster knife. While titanium is strong and won't break, thin sections bend easily. Because it isn't hardenable in the sense we think of, it can't be used for thin blades and things that get lots of side strain and torqueing. Oyster knives are very thin - .060"to .090" stock is what I use.

For the heck of it I'll have to make one someday and give it to the fellows at Lucky Oyster to test. My guess is it won't last more than two oysters before it looks like a corkscrew.
 
Stacy ... is that why you need to harden the things ... because they are used as much (or more?) to pry and twist rather than cut? (You can tell I have never shucked an oyster....
 
Cushing H. said:
Stacy ... is that why you need to harden the things ... because they are used as much (or more?) to pry and twist rather than cut? (You can tell I have never shucked an oyster....
Click to expand...
Opening an oysters needs a bit of skill and some power behind the drill/stuck in/twist motion. The shell is hard, unhardened tip would probably bend on the first 5 pieces you open, depending on the thickness/tip shape.

If you just want to play with what you have use an old file and temper it first.
 
Thanks for updating your profile. There are lots of guys in your neck of the woods that should be able to help. If you don't find one, send the blade to me.
 
Thank you all for your responses. Sounds like heat treating is a must. Also, thanks for the search tool - I was just trying to use googe, not nearly as effective. Any suggestions on someone in the upstate for heat treating? Also, Stacy, do you sell your oyster knives and if so how would I go about learning more? Thanks again!
 
I'm pretty low on inventory right now, but yes, I sell them.

I could also just send you a hardened blade and you could make your knife from that.

Send me an email for more information.
 
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