Trying out some new steel

[Cauldra]

I recently ordered a few things from texas knife, and the order came yesterday! In it I bought a few pieces of 1080, which I have been using, but I also got one piece of 0-1 and 440C, which I have not used. How are the two steels heat treated? If it is too complicated for me I will just send the knives out to be heat treated, but I would still like to know how. :thumbup:

 

[obsessis]

what are you using to heat treat?

the o1 should be do-able, it is supposed to be forgiving and easy.

440c requires a higher temp and I think a longer soak, you might need to send that one out.

i have been planning on sticking with high carbon (10xx, 5160) steels due to the ease of heat treating. I also will use o1 but not sure if that fits into that category.

 

[Cauldra]

For now I am just using two blow torches that I have. I could possibly come up with something better, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I figured I might have to send them out. I got the 440 becauce I wanted to try a stainless steel. Either way I'm gonna have fun!

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

The stainless will have to be sent out for HT.
The O-1 can be done in the shop, but using a pair of torches will be problematic at best. If you have been getting good results with 1080, you might give it a try with O-1, but it really needs a little closer tolerance an soaking time. Might be easier to send it out until you get a regulated forge or a HT oven.

When people say that O-1 is forgiving in HT, that is a slight misrepresentation. It can be improperly heat treated, and still get hard....but will be lacking in some way. Either the hardness will be lower, the toughness will be reduced, or the steel structure will be inconsistent. All of these are important on a quality blade, so the more correct statement would be:
" O-1 can be heat treated with less than optimum procedures and result in a hardened blade with less than optimum quality. This is not to say that the blade will be bad, just less than it could be."

Stacy