Unsettling feedback

[HDCutlery]

FWIW, when you factor everything in (ESPECIALLY if you're trying to sell the knife anyhow), paying for a reputable company to heat treat your blades is an almost negligible cost. If doing several at once, including cryo, it may very well cost less than doing it yourself, especially when factoring time in, and whatever your local cost of LN may be (not to mention the equipment to transport/store it.)

IMO, you heat treat your own stainless for convenience and turnaround... NOT to save money.

Hehe well until I can get some shillings set aside to complete the grinder I'm building turnaround is a snail pace at best. I'm still toting the puny 1x30 I bought for sharpening and rehandling.

Sent from my SM-G900R4 using Tapatalk

 

[Justice4all]

I only work in stainless, have an Evenheat oven and a hardness tester. Honestly, it seems easier heat treating stainless than the processes used for non air hardening steels. Follow the recipes as laid out by the foundries and it goes pretty easily. Hell, there are actually fairly large windows in the temps and times that allow us to tweak the hardness values. I'm still new, but the heat treat is the easiest aspect of the process for me so far.

CPM 154 baked for 45 minutes at 1950, cooled immediately out of the oven between refrigerated aluminum 1" thick plates to room temp, followed by an overnight LN bath (not necessary, but works out time wise) yields a consistent 62.5 - 63.5 RC. Two tempering bakes at 480 brings it down to 61.5 RC. The hardness readings are taken on surface ground, alcohol cleaned surfaces. Any irregularities or scale/patina in the surface causes false or misleading readings. Usually lower than expected.

Since I want complete control I opted to spend the money on the tools necessary for this. It also allows me to control the variables and I can tweak the steel at will, without having to wait on shipping back and forth to an outside HT service.

When and if I get the chance to use my forge and anvil for working carbon steels, I'll still utilize my oven to get more exacting temps so that when I sell a knife to someone, I'll have a pretty good idea of what shape the steel is in. Even masters can have issues when reading temps visually.

 

[HDCutlery]

I know what you mean and I am by no means an expert. The forge was an unexpected but welcome gift from my wife after seeing me in the shop working on some regrinds. An evenheat will be in the future as I agree with the precision being the best case scenario for consistent work. Plus I won't have to "wing" the tempering in a conventional oven.