Would you be happy with this heat treat?

Black Oak Bladeworks

Black Oak Bladeworks

Joined
Jun 5, 2019
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759
Hi all, I have a recent knife I finished made of CPM3V. I sent it to Peters Heat Treat to get it heat treated and in that process it warped and they straitened it with a torch. (For scale the knife is about 8inches long over all.) I had decided to acid etch it and stone wash it and the spot was a little larger than I had anticipated it being after the etch. If this was your knife would be satisfied with this heat treat? I know many makers will do differential heat treats so a soft spine is not un heard of I am just interested to see what the makers here had to say about it and if you all thought the size of the torch mark was acceptable. Also any other design feedback you have don't be afraid to share it! I am getting back into the swing of things but am looking to improve! Thanks in advance!
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Appearance wise you can lightly polish the oxides with fine grit paper and etch again. After a few cycles you can probably make it not noticable. The question is whether you wanted this done to the steel. I noticed that the latest version of their order sheet says to indicate your preference for how they deal with warps. I hate getting the torch marks, especially if I plan to etch, but I'm not sure I want to get it back warped and start messing with peening...
 
That’s how they straighten blades, shouldn’t hurt anything except looks. I wonder if you can request for them to not straighten and do it yourself with a carbide hammer.

Hoss
 
Richard338 said:
Appearance wise you can lightly polish the oxides with fine grit paper and etch again. After a few cycles you can probably make it not noticable. The question is whether you wanted this done to the steel. I noticed that the latest version of their order sheet says to indicate your preference for how they deal with warps. I hate getting the torch marks, especially if I plan to etch, but I'm not sure I want to get it back warped and start messing with peening...
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Good to know! Thank you for that tip! I will probably keep letting them straiten. Although not my preferred method, Its still probably better than me doing it. :)

DevinT said:
That’s how they straighten blades, shouldn’t hurt anything except looks. I wonder if you can request for them to not straighten and do it yourself with a carbide hammer.

Hoss
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The only knives I had warp in the past are much larger and I just wanted to get feedback to make sure this was still okay in other makers opinions. Thank you very much for weighing in!
bikerector said:
While I don't prefer that method of straightening, Peter's does disclose using that method.
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Yes sir! Just wanted to make sure this was still seemed reasonable. Thank you for the feedback!
 
DevinT said:
That’s how they straighten blades, shouldn’t hurt anything except looks. I wonder if you can request for them to not straighten and do it yourself with a carbide hammer.

Hoss
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what kind of weight would that hammer be?
 
Lorien said:
what kind of weight would that hammer be?
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Does not need much weight. Below is one I made from a 1/4" piece of carbide and an old ball peen hammer, I think it was a 12oz. If anything, I wish it was a bit lighter. A lot of gentle taps are better than a few heavy hits.

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My last batch of 3V from bos heat treating....it looks like their ovens might use conveyors?

So far I'm happy (I think?) With this batch.

But they totally Ruined a whole batch of A2 for me.
I was going to make a post in the good/bad/ugly section, but I was afraid I'd get run out of town!

Peters flames the blades. Some People hate that.

I've actually been happy with Jarod Todd, but he will occasionally shut down his production when he gets busy/etc. That's why I Had to try the others.
Idk what I'm going to do in the future. It sucks. I wish their were more stand up/decent heat treaters

Basically, you are at their Mercy unless you have your own oven.

*Just gotta dig that money hole a little deeper!!!
 
Crag the Brewer said:

My last batch of 3V from bos heat treating....it looks like their ovens might use conveyors?

So far I'm happy (I think?) With this batch.

But they totally Ruined a whole batch of A2 for me.
I was going to make a post in the good/bad/ugly section, but I was afraid I'd get run out of town!

Peters flames the blades. Some People hate that.

I've actually been happy with Jarod Todd, but he will occasionally shut down his production when he gets busy/etc. That's why I Had to try the others.
Idk what I'm going to do in the future. It sucks. I wish their were more stand up/decent heat treaters

Basically, you are at their Mercy unless you have your own oven.

*Just gotta dig that money hole a little deeper!!!
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I am with you! I would love to do it myself, but I just can’t justify the expensive yet. Thankfully I have had very few knives warp so far. I have always heard great things about Jared Todd. I am going to have to send him some blades and give him a try.
 
To me the expense of your own oven is far cheaper than sending batch after batch out and waiting for them to come back hoping all was done the way you want. I noticed Jen Ken kilns offers financing now too so that makes it even more justifiable if you can split it up. Those torch marks look fairly mild but I’ve seen photos with the torch mark almost on the edge and I’m very much against that method of straightening personally. A carbide hammer does a much better job in my opinion
 
Many years ago Rick Marchant did to post here on straighting a blade in the heat treat kiln . Clamp the blade to a hardened flat piece of steel , inset a little pin to creat a slight back bend at the bend and place in the oven at 400 degrees for an hour . I have used that way twice and it worked great but I'm sure Peters does not have the time for that .
 
Jack O'Neill said:
How did they do this ?
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IDK?
I'm not sure if my experience was unique with them, I only read glowing reviews of them, everywhere online, but other than fast email replies, everything else seemed Sketchy. :/

I assumed they over heated them, but I'm not sure. They didn't give me a good explanation.
It didn't appear that they were tempered, maybe not at all.
They were glass hard! I shattered multiple knives.

It was after their summer plant shutdown they apparently do every year, maybe their stuff wasn't set up right and Mine was the test run, idk?...... (note to self)

They then offered to re-temper them, but I felt I could do that myself. I have access at work to large, commercial ovens.
I did 2 cycles. everything correctly on my end..... didn't matter, just helped a tiny bit. Still Shattered after about a half hour instead of 2 seconds.
All my A2 was ruined.

I gave them desired hardness ranges I wanted.
Nothing was inspected, no dimples, no marks.
I have no faith I got what i asked for.
We probably get just what Buck is running that day.
 
Interesting , they have done many of A-2 knives for me and never had a problem . To be fair though that was about 12 years ago . I talked with Paul Bos himself just before he retired and he told me they do a snap temper on A-2 before they do the cyro to assure the blades do not crack .
I wonder what happened .
 
Crag the Brewer said:

My last batch of 3V from bos heat treating....it looks like their ovens might use conveyors?

So far I'm happy (I think?) With this batch.

But they totally Ruined a whole batch of A2 for me.
I was going to make a post in the good/bad/ugly section, but I was afraid I'd get run out of town!

Peters flames the blades. Some People hate that.

I've actually been happy with Jarod Todd, but he will occasionally shut down his production when he gets busy/etc. That's why I Had to try the others.
Idk what I'm going to do in the future. It sucks. I wish their were more stand up/decent heat treaters

Basically, you are at their Mercy unless you have your own oven.

*Just gotta dig that money hole a little deeper!!!
Click to expand...
PM sent. :cool:

Whoops. I guess I can’t send you a PM. Check your profile page.
 
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Many past posts on carbide straightening hammers. Here is one:

Straightening high speed steels.

@Willie71 just heat treated some M2 and M4 for me. I can't wait to put one together and put it to use in my kitchen. The Zapp M4 came out great but the M2( I don't know the maker) warped. Its at 66Rc so I'm nervous about flexing these at that hardness. I don't know if the high red hardness...
www.bladeforums.com www.bladeforums.com
 
If I recall correctly, JT rigged up an old sewing machine to straighten with. I have an old machine on standby in my storage building if I ever get around to modifying it.

I am on month 4.5 waiting for my Jen Ken air bath kiln to arrive.
 
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