Quick questions for my first knife

scdub

scdub

Dealer / Materials Provider
Joined
May 29, 2004
Messages
3,065
Hi All,

I'm off to quench and temper my first blade tomorrow morning. I'm pleased at how it's come out so far. I'll try to post picks soon. Does anyone out there use "My Space" or something similar for posting pics? My wife said she could set up an account for me in about 10 minutes.

Anyway - that's not the question. The questions are:

1) Are you supposed to allow the blade to air cool to ambient between tempering cycles. If not, then what?

2) I'm planning to draw down the temper on the handle and a small part of the spine using a heated scrap bar and watching colors run. I'll also have the edge in water at the time. Do I do this AFTER tempering? This seems to make the most sense but I haven't found it spelled out yet.

Thanks again in advance. Wish me luck.

SCDUB
 
scdub said:
Anyway - that's not the question. The questions are:

1) Are you supposed to allow the blade to air cool to ambient between tempering cycles. If not, then what?
Click to expand...

There are a lot of guys who know next to everything about Heat-treating a knife, however they will all first ask you what type of steel do you have?

and what type of tools do you have to play with?
 
You can cool the blade between temper cycles by running water over it. It just has to drop below 100F between cycles.

A small torch (a simple propane plumbing torch works great) is the simplest way to draw down the tang and spine.A hot bar of steel will work,too. As the term says, you are drawing down the TEMPER, so you have to do the tempering first. A cookie sheet with about 1/8 to 1/4" of water in it is an easy way to keep the edge from getting too hot while drawing down the temper.

Good luck on the blade

As Allan said, the necessary info is blade type, steel type, method and equipment used. e.g. - "I am doing the HT on a small bowie knife I made from 1095. I am using a one brick oven and tempering in the kitchen oven. I am going to draw the temper afterward with a hod block of steel and the edge in a pan of water." Then everyone knows what is going on.
Stacy
 
Yes that would help to determined what temperature to heat treatment and temper the steel at. Post that information and we may be able to assist you in that process. Have a great day ---------------:thumbup:
 
I've posted a little slide show on myspace for my pals to see what I've been up to..... seems the last couple of months (since i got bitten by the knife bug) I've been abscent from the pub/clubs i used to haunt... Anyway here is my little page:eek:
 
Hi All,

Thanks for the responses. The cookie sheet is a gret idea - I've already got one sitting next to the door to take to the forge. (I'm going tomorrow, not today...)

Sorry for lack of details - I know that is often a problem, just didn't think it would effect the answers that much. Actually, I think I got good answers on all three questions - but for any that would like to add a thought:

~Knife will be carried by me, on my boot (it will take the place of a Howling Rat that's there now), on duty. That is, if I don't break it during testing. It will be primarily a rescue/entry knife - not defensive (heavy), compromises made toward imact and prying.
~1/4"
~5160
~Coal forged to shape.
~Normalized/Annealed/Normalized
~Ground to 120 grit and smoothed
~Holes drilled
I'm about to:
~Heat to critical, quench in 120 degree canola oil three times. I plan to submirge blade point down and move up and down with handle partially in oil.
~Transfer directly to 475 toaster oven for 2 hours. Allow blade to cool, do it again. (Anyone else squeemish about using water? I realise the steel isn't so hot...).
~ While keeping the edge submirged in water (cookie sheet) I'll slowly draw down the temper using a hot bar of scrap steel place on the spine. I'll stop the draw by setting the knife into the water when about a third of the edge hasn't been touched by any color.
~ Clean up to about 160 grit.
~Test.

Sound good? Any suggestions?

Thanks again.


Heat to critical
 
My only knowledge right now is the 3 I'm working on and the $50 knife book. (and google + the forums), I did my tempering at 390, but I was guessing a bit. 475 seems hot to me for anything I've read about.

But I am NOT an authority.

I just let the toaster oven cool off and let stuff sit for 3 hours between cycles. But I have a toddler and a 6 month old and a wife in college, so I *have* to be patient.

oh- google page creator hosts my pix.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top