The first but won't be the last.

[KnuckleDownKnives]

Guess is was bound to happen sooner or later. Heard that sound no one wants to hear. Really bummed too. Was an old black diamond give to me by an old friend with a story behind it. Oh well it's a learning process.

 

[KnuckleDownKnives]

Should have left it alone and tempered it. Heated and soaked for min just above non mag, quenched the edge in water for 2 seconds and quenched in canolla. Was good and hard, ground off the decarb and a file wouldn't touch it. Was trying to get some sort of hammon on it and did the same procedure again when it cracked.

Took the blade a little thinner than usual as the last had good results but just oil quench and had to grind a lot off after it was hard so tried to go thinner and payed the price. Damn depressing after all the work. Still going to temper it and use it around the shop till its breaks.

 

[AlphaMoose]

Aww that sucks >.< I remember being in a "tribal smithing" phase back in high school and after a LOT of work straightening a car coil spring and hammering it out into a blade I was proud of, only to hear the dreaded crack on hardening.
Heartbreaker.

 

[JTknives]

That sucks for sure. I have had blades crack in the quench befor but normally because I was using a quench media that was way faster then what was needed. But that being said I have also had blades crack after quenching and 100% of the time it was because A. I took to long to temper it or B. I ground on it befor tempering. I don't mess with blades much now befor tempering besides wiping the oil off. Any grinding at all will change the location of the stress and can and will cause cracking. I will file test the edge real quick and see how deep the decarb is then right into the oven.

 

[David Stifle]

Did you clay the blade? And why quench in water? You could have clayed the blade, quenched in oil, and more than likely you would have a nice hamon bearing blade.

 

[KnuckleDownKnives]

That sucks for sure. I have had blades crack in the quench befor but normally because I was using a quench media that was way faster then what was needed. But that being said I have also had blades crack after quenching and 100% of the time it was because A. I took to long to temper it or B. I ground on it befor tempering. I don't mess with blades much now befor tempering besides wiping the oil off. Any grinding at all will change the location of the stress and can and will cause cracking. I will file test the edge real quick and see how deep the decarb is then right into the oven.

I only ground it at a very low speed to get some decarb off to file test it. Read on here so many times that people thought that the quench didn't work when in fact it did, but they were testing a blade that still had decarb on it and it threw them off. I should have followed my gut, and let it be on the first attempt and temper it. I'd have a nice knife. I knew it was hard before I even raked the file across it. Metal has a unique feel to it when it comes out of a quench. I know it can't be just me, but there is a completely different feel to the metal once it's been heated and dunked in oil and hardened.

Did you clay the blade? And why quench in water? You could have clayed the blade, quenched in oil, and more than likely you would have a nice hamon bearing blade.

No, no clay. Should have. Inexperience and too much crap on the net out here to confuse the non experience guy. There are only 1 million different pages with one million different ways to treat the same metal and everyone that posts it lives by it. I just need to spend the time and make a recipe book for different metals and keep it in the shop so I don't have all this crap floating around in my head when doing it.

 

[David Stifle]

I only ground it at a very low speed to get some decarb off to file test it. Read on here so many times that people thought that the quench didn't work when in fact it did, but they were testing a blade that still had decarb on it and it threw them off. I should have followed my gut, and let it be on the first attempt and temper it. I'd have a nice knife. I knew it was hard before I even raked the file across it. Metal has a unique feel to it when it comes out of a quench. I know it can't be just me, but there is a completely different feel to the metal once it's been heated and dunked in oil and hardened.



No, no clay. Should have. Inexperience and too much crap on the net out here to confuse the non experience guy. There are only 1 million different pages with one million different ways to treat the same metal and everyone that posts it lives by it. I just need to spend the time and make a recipe book for different metals and keep it in the shop so I don't have all this crap floating around in my head when doing it.

I have nothing against quenching in water, it has it's place. But, the fact is, those who chose to water quench vastly increase the chance the blade will break. It's up to the individual maker, but personally, after hours of work, I wouldn't want to chose a method that leads to the dreaded ping.

 

[KnuckleDownKnives]

I have nothing against quenching in water, it has it's place. But, the fact is, those who chose to water quench vastly increase the chance the blade will break. It's up to the individual maker, but personally, after hours of work, I wouldn't want to chose a method that leads to the dreaded ping.

Heard that David. This will probably be the last time I do this method. Got one in the oven right now that was only quenched in canolla and it's harder than anything I have to test it with. No cracks and for what I'm capable of right now, good enough. Harder than a good file. Wish I'd have done this on the one in the op but all things considered it's a lesson payed for. Ready to get to real known steel so the guess work is out.