Warped Steel

[T Blade]

OK, how ya'll doin'?

First let me say the the hammer-in at Indian George's house was great, met a lot of folks from the NECKA crowd, they are such a great bunch of people I just had to join up!
So anyway, later that week when I got home from a job in SC, I forged a blade using a technique that I saw at a demo. The shape came out nice (clip point). When I stuck it in the vermiculite for annealing, it touched the bottom of the can (Long blade). I was going to go to IG's for the grinding last Saturday. Later Friday nite, I realized that I hadn't normalized the blade, so Saturday morning I went out to the shop to do that. After normalizing (3 times) I stuck it back in the vermiculite, only this time on an angle so it wouldn't hit the bottome of the can. Low and behold when I removed it after cooling, it was bent right a the beginning of the clip point and also at the beginning of the ricasso, . Since I got a good annealing, I cold worked at least the clip point back to straight, and the ricasso some what straight. Now the question, do you think the blade will warp again during the heat treating process? Should I reheat it and work it again to avoid those stresses created during the cold work?

Thanks

 

[indian george]

Larry, are sure you didn't drop the blade???? We know you are all finger's. Saturday is going to be a good day for a bike ride. There is a knife show at Cove Cutlery on Saturday too.
PS: What kind of beer you bring??????

 

[Alarion]

I found that with forged blades sometimes one normalization cycle is not enough, and not even two. I give the blade a straight shape and normalize. I let the blade cool slowly in still air and see if it warps. It often does. So I heat it again and rap it straight (at forging temp: doing it cold just adds stresses and you risk going on forever) then let it cool, normalize and see if the problems pops out again. if it does, heat, rap straight, normalize.
When the heated blade will stay straight, I normalize twice more and the heat treat.
Blades thus treated I've broken for test showed a silky appearance of the fracture, which should indicate a very fine grain. I don't have a microscope, so this exam will have to do..

 

[Bearclaw]

Larry, Having done that onct 'afore, there are several reason why your blade could warp during an annealing process. The most likely canidate that comes to mind is, since the annealing heat is closer to the hardening heat on carbon steels than stainless, it is very easy to get the blade too hot and as it is being pushed into the vermiculite/lime/ash at an angle it bends. As Alarion stated cold work can/will cause problems. In my shop I have a box of lime/ash/vermic. that I use. It's large enough to make a trough in, then I lay the blade in edge up and cover it over, in this way I don't get bent blades. Hope this helps, Lee Oates/www.bearclawknives.com

 

[Alarion]

I have a small can of ground firebrick for anneal. I actually use two cans. Put the knife in the empty one and pour the powder in. Next time I simply put the new blade in the now empty can...

 

[T Blade]

Thanks for the info.
I guess this blade is going back into the fire. I'll take care of the bends, re-normalize and anneal. Probably change the cooling process to laying the blade in a bed of vermiculite and covering it with some more of the same.

IG, if you are going to take your bike to the knife show, better pull it out of storage now and start kicking now! I know how those Indian Motorcycles can be. Or are you going to have a table there?
Definately a nice ride, always like riding be the beach area of this beautiful state of Rhode Island, or is that "state of confusion"? Well nevermind they're both nice states

Beer! Beer, did somebody say Beer? IG, you know I drink only the finest, "nectar of the gods" some woul say!!

 

[indian george]

Beer! Beer, did somebody say Beer? IG, you know I drink only the finest, "nectar of the gods" some woul say!!

Make sure you bring enough for two.
I am not going this weekend. I am planning on going to the Gun and Knife show on 9/27 in Marlboro. I couldn't ask Helen's PCA for two Saturday's in a row.