Retemper 1095?

[Jemblade]

Hey all.

I am new to knife making. Been trying my hand at it for the last few months. I am working on a 1095 blade now with stock removal by hand. I have made it through the heat treat and temper. I put an edge on it and tried my hand at the brass rod test. I had to press down pretty hard to get any sort of deflection, but once it did the metal stayed dimpled in the area. Obviously I screwed up my HT or temper.

The process is used for HT was normalized 3 times by bringing to non-magnetic then air cool to ambient. Heated to non-magnetic then quenched in 120(ish) degree vegetable oil.

I tempered at 500 degrees (had an internal oven thermometer for verification) for (3) 1 hour cycles while letting the blade cool to ambient in between each cycle. I had read that this should have gotten it to around 59-60 HRC. I am thinking that perhaps this is just too low for hardness. Can I retemper it at around 450 to be a bit harder? Are 1 hour cycles not enough? Or did I screw up in HT?

I appreciate your willingness to share you knowledge and insight.

 

[BluntCut MetalWorks]

I am fairly new at this too. hence YMMV. Perhaps Mod would kindly move this thread to knifemaker subforum.

If you press hard enough and flex too far, edge will stay deform as expected. If you are seeking a higher rc, you need to re-ht, this time temper at 450F twice 2hrs each. Here is a useful link: http://www.cashenblades.com/steel/1095.html

 

[Jemblade]

Thanks bluncut. Yeah after I posted I figured I did so to the wrong area. So basically if it was too brittle and chipping I could retemper, but beep cause it is soft it needs to go throughout the whole ht process again. Thanks for your help.