tempering

B

bill may

Joined
Jul 30, 2014
Messages
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hey guys I've look through the sticky's and haven't been able to find a specific answer on my question so I ask you.
this is my first oil quenching the blade only(not the spine)and I was wondering do I still need to temper it in the oven or does
the heat from the unquenched part of the knife do this for you? the width of the blade from spine to edge is 1 inch
and I left a 1/4 of the blade to the spine unquenched. if I do need to temper it do I treat it like a fully quenched blade or do I modify
the time or temperature?
 
What steel...?
How are you heating it..?
Are you heating the whole blade, or just the edge..?
How do you know if it's hot enough, but not too hot.
Are you quenching the entire blade, or only he edge...(Fire..!)..?
What oil are you quenching into..?

Yes...if the hardening goes well, the blade will need to be tempered separately.
 
this is my 14th knife I've made I am no were near a perfect knife maker I am teaching myself how to do this through hands on,you tube,books and this forum
with this said I have made this knife from a coil spring from a truck I am guessing it falls into the 1084 range. I heated the entire blade to non magnetic
and quenched only the edge (not the spine) in canola oil.

so do I modify tempering time on this or is it the same as if I hardened the entire blade? I'm experimenting here trying to find out works best.
 
It's probably more like 5160....though I know 1095 is also sometimes used for springs ( I've seen specs)...

But either way the first temper should be 390-400f, then check if hardness is satisfactory....If so, a second temper

at the same temp....at least one hour each....Raise tempering temp as judgement indicates...

Your method of edge quenching could result in lower as quenched edge hardness....you'll need to test.

How are you heating...?
 
I'm using a small atlas gas forge I can't remember the heating spec's but it does a pretty good job for it's size.
I'm going to grizzly's this week to get some Rockwell hardness test files so I can get it right.
on that second tempering is their anything I need to do to the blade before I put it back in the oven.
I was under the impression that once you had a straw color on the steel it was were you wanted it. I'm kind of unclear
on what the second temper will do for it?
 
Temper coloring will be misleading. It's best to wrap the blade...loosely...in aluminum foil, so as to have an

air baffle because ovens (toaster ovens etc) fluctuate a lot in their heating/cooling cycles. Use an oven thermometer.

Don't rely on the oven reading.

The first temper tempers the martensite created during the quench, but also creates more untempered martensite. the second

temper is for the newly created martensite.

The Atlas should do quite well. I'd suggest reading up on decallescense, and try using that instead of a

magnet.

The Rockwell test files will do OK....+- a couple of points. It's best to have a test piece of verified hardness to compare to.
 
thank you for taking the time to help me. I really appreciate it and I checked out some your knives that kind of craftsmanship is the goal I've set for myself.
really nice work.
 
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