Sanity check 1075 stock removal knife

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NapalmCheese

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I'm making a small knife via stock removal out of 1070/1075 (picked it up on amazon labeled as such). I've got it mostly shaped and am just starting the bevel. The blade is about 3 inches long, an inch tall, and filed out of 3/16" stock. I'm shooting for a full flat grind. I've been doing everything with hand files and hacksaws so far.

So for the questions:
  1. How thick should I leave the edge before heat treat? About 1/16th or so?
  2. My only heat source is a propane torch, so I was planning on deferentially hardening by placing the blade on a fire brick and heating the edge with the propane torch until non-magnetic, does that seem reasonable or am I just going to frustrate myself with that propane torch?
  3. I think 1075 can be brine or water quenched, should I even try it? Otherwise the procedure would be to heat the edge and quench in 120-130* canola oil. I should swish it during the quench right? Also, how long do I keep it submerged?
  4. I need to temper pretty soon after quenching right? 400* for two hours, let cool, then 400* for another two hours?
Thanks all.
 
I think warmed cannola and 8 sec while gently moving forward backwards, take it out, gently flat any curve (20-30s window) with heavy gloves and back in to oil to completely cool. Straight to temper.
 
Edge pre-HT at .040"
A propane torch is hard to use for a novice. It might be better to take the blade over to another smith with a forge or oven.
Oil quench the blade. A gallon of 120F canola oil is good.
That temper regimen is good. You actually only need an hour for each heat cycle, but two won't hurt.
 
Right on, thanks everyone!

I know a guy who does forge nights every Tuesday so I might just run over then when I get this thing all filed up.
 
Good point, but I will lean on the side of being supportive of the fellow since he does weekly forge nights. The person may not be experienced, but just as easily, the fellow could be very talented.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Good point, but I will lean on the side of being supportive of the fellow since he does weekly forge nights. The person may not be experienced, but just as easily, the fellow could be very talented.
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So far as I can tell he knows what he's doing, but then again, I don't know what I don't know right?

At any rate I have a sizeable piece of 80CRV2 (something he is familiar with) that I'll be taking with me to forge nights once a month or so (he does them weekly but I can't make that much time for it) and he's willing to let me use his tools, so that's a bonus. Until then, I have a rough understanding of what I need to do with this 1075 blade I'm filing and if he has at least a passing knowledge of forging and heat treat work I feel pretty confident in having some success.

I'm going to try my hand at making and heat treating some gravers for my wife with the leftover 1075 that I have in the mean time.
 
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Forge nights are great! I go to a local forge several times a month here in NC and I feel it has taught me a bunch. 1st six sessions or so I proved my skill in melting steel but have stuck with it and picked up forge welding and shaping rough forge knife consistently (only wish free hand grinding would go as well). Hope it works well for you in 2020
 
So, the stock removal knife was taking a long time to file so I’ve been going at it in fits and spurts.

Today however I got a bug to just forge out a knife.

I never did make it to any of the forge nights with that fellow near me, I just wasn’t working with my schedule and then we all had to shelter in place... So, in lieu of forge nights I acquired a piece of railroad track and a few fire bricks and started making little bobbles like twisted cloak pins and d-rings. I didn’t necessarily get tired of that (I’ve got some work to do in the twisting department) but I DID want to try something different. So I grabbed a piece of the 1075 that I cut off while shaping the knife that initially prompted this thread and started going to town with a hammer and torch.

After a bit I had something knife shaped, albeit tiny.

Even managed to heat treat it (I’m pretty sure it’s a decent enough heat treat) and it’s tempering right now.

As an aside, I noticed while filing on this knife I made today that it was MUCH softer than the stock removal knife. I stuck the stock removal blade in my impromptu forge and normalized (or whatever it is when you get it past magnetic and let it air cool) and hopefully it’ll file better. I might actually get around to finishing it now!

It’s knife like, it has distal taper, and I hammered in the flat bevel before cleaning it up a bit with a file. The tang is a bit tiny, but... It’s a tiny knife, not like I was going to be chopping down trees with it anyway.

Next up, finishing that stock removal knife!

N3d0rPcl.jpg


One of these days I’ll make it over to the other guy’s place. He’s got a lot to teach and I’ve got plenty to learn (not just blacksmithing and bladesmithing, but a number of other metal arts). For now however, I’m having some fun.
 
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Where did you get the 1075? I got some from Aldo. It makes a great hamon. I couldn't get it to harden very well in canola. I had to use water. Someone who knows what they are doing could probably do better. Its been a couple of years since I tried it though. I don't harden things in a forge now.
 
I picked it up from Amazon through Rose Metal Products. I’ve since bought some 1084 and 80CRV2 from Aldo for other knives, but I’m going to get this working.

It definitely got harder than it was. If I take a fine file to a hard corner it bit some, but it’s definitely not taking off a lot of material, and on the flats it was leaving a few marks but otherwise felt like it was skating. I have zero experience heat treating and so don’t really have a basis for saying it’s a good or bad heat treat; but it seems ‘decent enough’. We’ll see what happens though!
 
Storm W said:
Where did you get the 1075? I got some from Aldo. It makes a great hamon. I couldn't get it to harden very well in canola. I had to use water. Someone who knows what they are doing could probably do better. Its been a couple of years since I tried it though. I don't harden things in a forge now.
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Aldo’s 1075 has very low manganese, so low it’s actually not within 1075 spec. The 1075 that AKS sells has the same manganese content as 1084. It should harden properly in heated canola oil.
 
NapalmCheese said:
I picked it up from Amazon through Rose Metal Products. I’ve since bought some 1084 and 80CRV2 from Aldo for other knives, but I’m going to get this working.

It definitely got harder than it was. If I take a fine file to a hard corner it bit some, but it’s definitely not taking off a lot of material, and on the flats it was leaving a few marks but otherwise felt like it was skating. I have zero experience heat treating and so don’t really have a basis for saying it’s a good or bad heat treat; but it seems ‘decent enough’. We’ll see what happens though!
Click to expand...
Just so you know since I and other have had trouble with it but 80crv2 from Aldo will not harden up properly without doing normalizing heat cycles. I wrecked a bunch of it before I was able to find out what was wrong. I have heard that some of their 1084 can have the same problem though not as bad. The 80crv2 from AKS doesn't have this problem from what I have heard.
 
Storm W said:
Just so you know since I and other have had trouble with it but 80crv2 from Aldo will not harden up properly without doing normalizing heat cycles. I wrecked a bunch of it before I was able to find out what was wrong. I have heard that some of their 1084 can have the same problem though not as bad. The 80crv2 from AKS doesn't have this problem from what I have heard.
Click to expand...

Everything AKS sells is ready for heat treat as you get it. No cycling or moralizations needed.
 
Storm W said:
Just so you know since I and other have had trouble with it but 80crv2 from Aldo will not harden up properly without doing normalizing heat cycles. I wrecked a bunch of it before I was able to find out what was wrong. I have heard that some of their 1084 can have the same problem though not as bad. The 80crv2 from AKS doesn't have this problem from what I have heard.
Click to expand...

Much appreciated.

For forging work you pretty much have to normalize the piece anyway from what I understand, but I was planning on probably doing another stock removal blade or two from the 1084 so this is good to know.
 
I started buying from AKS a while ago and I don’t think I’m ever gonna buy from anywhere else again. 99.9% of the time they have exactly what I want and I have yet to make a blade that I’ve had any heat treat trouble with. Forging or stock removal the steel just plain gets as hard as it’s suppose to, period.
 
I didn’t even know them as a supplier, hah; that’s how knew to this I am. I bought the first piece from RMP because I didn’t know where else to go, then heard so much about NJSB I just had to buy from there. Now another supplier! No worries, if it all works out well I’ll have plenty of time to play with a lot of different steels from a lot of different suppliers.
 
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