I know working with mystery steel is always a gamble, and that in order to get the best performance from a knife I would need to know the exact makeup of the steel. Well, to be frank, I cannot afford to have all of my steel tested. I get a large supply of used saw blades from a friend of mine that works at a mill. Most of the blades are 20" edger blades, and so far I have had pretty good luck making knives out of them. Up to this point, I have been using an oxy/ace torch for all my annealing and hardening, and my kitchen oven for tempering. The problems I've always had is not being able to achieve a proper annealed state because of a lack of ability to soak at temp, warping due to uneven heating, loss of carbon within the structure because of not being able to limit the oxygen in the immediate atmosphere, and uneven temper due to oven temps fluxuating. It is for those reasons that I recently invested in my own oven.
Now that I have the oven, I need to come up with some recipes that will work for my steels (I have used old files and rasps as well). I need suggestions on what kind of steel is most likely in the blades I'm using so I can figure out a workable recipe. Or, if anyone has determined a good recipe that works with saw steel, I'm more than willing to listen. I'm most interested in temps, soak times, etc.
I'm primarily looking for advise on the materials I have on hand, so please keep all replies within the realm of being helpful. Telling me to use known steel is not helping so please don't make suggestions to do so. I like the idea of using the old saws because it adds uniqueness to my knives that many potential customers like, especially being from East Tx. where timber is big business.
So, now I turn it over to your experience and expertise to help guide me along to make a better product.
Now that I have the oven, I need to come up with some recipes that will work for my steels (I have used old files and rasps as well). I need suggestions on what kind of steel is most likely in the blades I'm using so I can figure out a workable recipe. Or, if anyone has determined a good recipe that works with saw steel, I'm more than willing to listen. I'm most interested in temps, soak times, etc.
I'm primarily looking for advise on the materials I have on hand, so please keep all replies within the realm of being helpful. Telling me to use known steel is not helping so please don't make suggestions to do so. I like the idea of using the old saws because it adds uniqueness to my knives that many potential customers like, especially being from East Tx. where timber is big business.
So, now I turn it over to your experience and expertise to help guide me along to make a better product.
