remove hardness

T

Tim Greenfield

Joined
Jul 26, 2011
Messages
5
I am new to knife making, I made a knife from D-2 ...and thinking it was close enough to finish after heat treat...had it heat treated to 60- 61 RC..
Now looking at it from "new eyes" I see it should have had much more work done to it before it was heat treated. What steps would I take to remove the hardness. I wish to soften it up.....repair what I messed up and then have it heat treated again. will it ruin the knife doing this?
It is my first knife....I made some stupid mistakes...I quit working on it and started and finished 3 knives since then,and now want to fix this one if possible. If it will never be right "temper" wise I will leave it as it is and forget about it....but if possible I would like to fix it.
I did not do the initial HT myself I sent it out...I do have an Oxy-acc torch though...
any help is appreciated
Tim
 
What exactly do you wish to change on the blade?

You can do a lot post heat treat as long as you do not over heat the blade.
 
D-2 isn't all that simple an annealing task.
If you have temperature controlled equipment, it is easy.
With a torch, it will be a bad idea. It may be simpler to make a new knife if you can't work this one while hard.
 
Yup, Stacy said.

D2 is one of the steels that, depending on its makeup and the austenitizing temperatures used to harden it, can experience extreme grain growth on a second austenitizing. (This is problem D2 shares with high speed steels). It is recommended to normalize it before taking a second stab at HT.
 
I appreciate all of your advise...I have decided to postpone any attempt to "soften" the D-2...I think after I gain more experience, I might be in a better position to know how to finish this knife....so I am going to hang this one on the wall and use it as an visual "object lesson". I have learned some very valuable lessons from this knife, and while I have so much more to learn..perhaps this will keep me humble....when and if I get full of myself as I learn this skill. thanks again
Tim
 
Tim

Keep your first blade as it is and move on. You can always use it in the future to show to others how much you've improved, and anyway, first knives have a long tradition of being, umm let's say, "less than perfect".

- Paul Meske
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top