Pre & Post Heat Treat

R

rpbali

Joined
Feb 23, 2007
Messages
223
Hi all, it's been a while since I've posted here. Been working on my first knife for quite a while now:rolleyes: It got put on the back burner for quite some time. Its about 8.5" of 5/32 O1 Full Flat Ground (re: filed). Well, I pulled it out again yesterday and continued working on the bevels. I have done the entire thing thus far with a hack saw and files (and a drill press to skeletonize the handle), and plan to finish it this way. No grinder for me:o

Well, onto the question. I know that you have to leave some thickness to the edge before heat treat so that there is less of a chance of it cracking. From other threads, it seems the thickness of a dime is about right? Any other input on what thickness to leave it? I don't have a micrometer, so try not to give it to me in thousandths of an inch, if at all possible. Then once the HT is done, how do I finish it off and put an edge on it? Can it be done with a file, or do I need something else?

Thanks for any help you can give me.

Jason
 
I think your dime will be a little thick go with the thickness of your hacksaw blade or 1mm or .040"

Richard
 
If you don't have a grinder the only way -well- there is two ways sharpen it.
The way I would do it is with a diamond rock .This is to put a 20 degree angle on it.
The other is to hold your rc down so that a sharp file will cut it, but I don't like
this way. You need to keep your rc up to 57-58.
It's a lot of work with a rock but once you get it you will know whats going on
Jerry
 
Or use the exact same thing the grinder uses: sandpaper. Any good sandpaper will still bite even into the hardest of steels, although you're going to want to back it with something stiff if you have any corners you want to keep crisp.
 
If you don't have calipers, use pencil lead from mechanical pencils to measure it... Most of the mechanical pencils are .005 to .010 (some art pencils are larger).. About .025-.030 is ideal, but with O1 you're going to be fairly safe regardless.. Anyway, just stack the lead up and it will give you a good measurement. Or you can get a cheap set of calipers (try Enco.com or Harbor Freight) for around 15$ or so....




MT
 
Thanks for the replies guys. Good to know i can take it a bit thinner before it's hardened. And ya, I suppose sandpaper would still work good on a hardened blade. And I've got lots of that lying around.

And since this thread is here anyway, I'll ask another question too. After the bevels are filed (with a bastard file), should I go to a smoother file, then go through the sandpaper grits starting around 80?

Jason
 
If you are sanding/grinding by hand make sure you take it to at least 220 grit finish BEFORE HT and remove ALL OTHER SCRATCHES! You don't want to try to remove 80 grit marks after HT.
Matt Doyle
 
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