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Reheat treating a carbon steel blade?
- Thread starter L6steel
- Start date
- Joined
- Dec 2, 1999
- Messages
- 9,910
If it warped I say to anneal it and straighten it first but otherwise it wont hurt to try again a couple times. What happened? Spazzed out?
- Joined
- Sep 23, 1999
- Messages
- 5,855
Nawe, no warp or anything.
It's a bowie I sent off before I got my big oven. It was edge quenched and I want to do a full blade quench on it plus there turned out to be a very slight wave in the edge that I didn't notice till I'd finished the knife. Was sitting at my desk in the house cleaning it and ran my thumb and finger down the edge and felt the wave about half way down the blade. It's very minor but I still want to grind it out and then reheat treat the blade with a full quench.
I know everyone likes the hamon but I just don't see the benefit of the edge quench with the modern steels.
In the old days when they took a good piece of steel like a file and forge welded it to some low grade steel to make the body of the knife, there was no need to quench the whole blade.
Nowadays when the entire blade is made of quality steel it makes no sense to me to leave the bulk of the blade in the annealed state just to have a pretty line in the blade.
Man am I gonna catch it for that one, lol!
I know the reason given is flexibility but I don't buy that one bit. A knife doesn't need to be that flexible in the real world. Maybe during an ABS test it does but not during normal use.
Thanks for the help Bruce!!
Take care and have a grand week end!
Michael
It's a bowie I sent off before I got my big oven. It was edge quenched and I want to do a full blade quench on it plus there turned out to be a very slight wave in the edge that I didn't notice till I'd finished the knife. Was sitting at my desk in the house cleaning it and ran my thumb and finger down the edge and felt the wave about half way down the blade. It's very minor but I still want to grind it out and then reheat treat the blade with a full quench.
I know everyone likes the hamon but I just don't see the benefit of the edge quench with the modern steels.
In the old days when they took a good piece of steel like a file and forge welded it to some low grade steel to make the body of the knife, there was no need to quench the whole blade.
Nowadays when the entire blade is made of quality steel it makes no sense to me to leave the bulk of the blade in the annealed state just to have a pretty line in the blade.
Man am I gonna catch it for that one, lol!I know the reason given is flexibility but I don't buy that one bit. A knife doesn't need to be that flexible in the real world. Maybe during an ABS test it does but not during normal use.
Thanks for the help Bruce!!
Take care and have a grand week end!
Michael
- Joined
- Jun 25, 2001
- Messages
- 8,474
L6steel said:I know everyone likes the hamon but I just don't see the benefit of the edge quench with the modern steels.
In the old days when they took a good piece of steel like a file and forge welded it to some low grade steel to make the body of the knife, there was no need to quench the whole blade.
Nowadays when the entire blade is made of quality steel it makes no sense to me to leave the bulk of the blade in the annealed state just to have a pretty line in the blade.
I know the reason given is flexibility but I don't buy that one bit. A knife doesn't need to be that flexible in the real world. Maybe during an ABS test it does but not during normal use.
Thanks for the help Bruce!!
Take care and have a grand week end!
Michael
yeahup catch hell
you could look at it this way ( I can debate either side of anything
)when you use only the edge of a knife what propose would it make to full H/T?
- Joined
- Sep 23, 1999
- Messages
- 5,855
That's why I want to reheat treat it RL.
I never realized the rest of the blade was left annealed till this bowie and it just doesn't make sense to me.
I understand the flexibility aspect but why would anyone ever need to exert enough side pressure on a big knife to bend it much less break it?
I have a test in mind when I heat treat one.
Will post a picture of the results.
I never realized the rest of the blade was left annealed till this bowie and it just doesn't make sense to me.
I understand the flexibility aspect but why would anyone ever need to exert enough side pressure on a big knife to bend it much less break it?
I have a test in mind when I heat treat one.
Will post a picture of the results.
- Joined
- Mar 19, 1999
- Messages
- 620
I agree with you Michael, I can see the benefit of a soft back if you want to pound on the blade, but the vast majority of blades that are edge quenched only about 1/3 of the blade is hard. I would think it would be better to have about 2/3 of the blade hardened because then the blade should be much tougher to put a bend in in the first place. I also think the hardened part should extend past the guard/bolster area if you want a knife that wont bend. How do you put a bent knife back in its sheath? I will admit temper lines look very cool. I will also admit I haven't really tested my theories, but I work mostly with stainless steel so I wouldn't pretend to try to tell people what to do with carbon steels. As far as reheattreating just go ahead and do it. In my limited experience there is no need to anneal again as long as the grain structure is good to begin with.
Kyle Fuglesten
Kyle Fuglesten