Post HT Blade clean up ???

T

Tvl

Joined
Aug 30, 2015
Messages
19
Hello folks!

My name is Thomas, I'm new here and wanted to jump in with a question straight away.
I've just started knife making, and I'm already addicted.
I'm coming to you with probally a very basic beginner question.
Today I received an email that my first few blades will be mailed back to me from heat treatment.

And now I'm not sure how to go about cleaning the blades :confused::grumpy: , from the scale?(that grey/blueish layer, that I'm seeing in allot of videos).
I have found only one video so far, from 3 river blades, that shows a little bit how to do it.
But he uses scotchbrite belts for it, and I cant find those anywhere in the size I need.

It might be worth mentioning that the blades are all 1.2510,
and being hardened in salt baths.
I'll upload some pictures of them when they arrive tomorrow.

All help is very much appreciated!

Cheers,
Thomas.
 
most people use sandpaper. scotchbrite belts are more of a finishing belt. you didn't mention if your blades were totally finished when you sent them for heat treat. if they were totally finished, i would start at whatever grit you ended with. i use the techniques i saw on nick wheelers " hand sanding 101" video on youtube. the techniques take a long time, but you will get a high quality finish. i am not sure what type results you are seeking, so its hard to give exact advice.
 
I disagree with you saying scotchbrite is only a finishing belt. Heat treated carbon or damascus blades can be immediately cleaned with a scotchbrite belt. You just dont use as fine a belt. I use a medium one to clean all the scale left and it does a good job. It is super fast and you can go immediately to liquid nitrogen from there.
 
I wire wheel off the chunks, then sand off the rest, starting at a grit below what they were when I HT'ed them
 
Isn't scale greatly reduced when HT'd in a salt bath? I would think that no oxygen means no/less scale?
 
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