Share ... Long answer : You may find it easier to build a temporary "Sword forge " for heat treating. I spent some time trying to make something smaller that would work for knives-only. Please exercise extreme caution in this part of the process! This is useful if your steel requires particular heat treating instructions. That said, it’s also going to make it a lot harder to file or sand down, so make sure you’re happy with your knife before you treat it. He said it should be heat treated like W-1. Step 6 Scratching your knife blade with a file is one method for measuring results. Heat Treating Knives, Blades etc ; heat treating a long blade heat treating a long blade. The point of normalizing the blade is to stabilize the structure of the steel, so that when quenching is performed, a certain degree of warping can be avoided. You can either prime your bucket of oil by dipping some hot scrap metal like rebar in, or you can dip the tip of your knife into the oil and wait for the flames to die out. I don't work with S30V or 440C so I was a little hesitant about answering your post. I just started playing around with knife-making with some truck leaf spring.I think I have the gist on how to quench and heat-treat for a serviceable knife (time will tell).A Marine friend of mine asked if I could make him a SUPER HEAVY EOD-style knife. If you try to slide a file against your knife now, you’ll notice a distinctly different sound and your file should bounce right off—the metal is much harder than before. Veteran knife makers will tell you to use dedicated heat treat quench oil to get better results. Give yourself a pat on the back. The heat treating method is the same for knives made from forging, or stock removal. When the steel hits that golden straw color, you know you nailed it. Try Google-ing “heat treat knife your city” and go from there. You must refer to the directions for heat treating your particular type of steel. Differential heat treatment (also called selective heat treatment or local heat treatment) is a technique used during heat treating to harden or soften certain areas of a steel object, creating a difference in hardness between these areas. If you would rather refrain from doing this by yourself, there are numerous businesses that will do the heat reward service for you. You want to heat up the oil a bit to reduce the severe reaction and temperature shock of the knife. Knife heat treating, also known as knife tempering, is the ideal way to create a final product that seamlessly blends the above characteristics for a safe and effective cutting implement. For O1, hold it in there for another 4 minutes or so. You can make a âgoodâ knife out of it, but it is hard to make a âgreatâ knife ⦠A search for "Don Fogg heat treat drum" should bring up a good few hits. The preferred method in the community is a homemade 2-brick forge supplied with heat by a torch. Heat dealing with the steel on your knife blade is among the most crucial actions in producing and developing your knife. I dug a hole in our fire pit, stuck a black iron pipe in it and added a $5 hair dryer from the thrift store to the other end and built a fire on top of the hole. A recommended heat treatment would be 1850-1900°F for 30 minutes, plate quench, cryo, and temper 300-500°F. If you shaped your knife with an anvil and forge youâve already used heat treating to make the steel soft enough to hammer into shape. This procedure decreases the brittleness of the steel. OPTIONAL: instead of heating your blade straight from room temperature up to its critical point, some knife makers “normalize” the blade once or twice to help warm up the metal up before going all the way. The steel becomes nonmagnetic at the Curie point. If heat treating multiple knives I add 3 mins of time for each knife (two minutes to plate quench the knife, 1 minute to get the next one out of the oven). As soon as once again, this depends upon the kind of steel. Learn how your comment data is processed. For 1095 steel (as this blade is), this occurs at a temperature above 1335° F. âââ We first normalize the blade by heating it to a non-magnetic capacity. When this procedure is total the steel is incredibly difficult however extremely breakable. Without this step, the steel would be too soft to retain an edge for long. On this website, you will see many hundreds of defined knife terms, detailed descriptions and information on heat treating and cryogenic processing, on handles and blades, on stands and sheaths, and on knife types from hunting and utility to military, counterterrorism, and collection. Having a bigger window for success means you can do this with simple tools and still get a good result. The process above is a proven way to harden these materials. 9. Quenching is the process of rapidly cooling down your knife. Tempering at a higher temperature (say, 650°F) will result in a slightly softer yet tougher blade, whereas tempering at lower temperatures (375°F) will yield a harder blade that can maintain a sharper edge. Heat the metal to non-magnetic (the critical point). Satiating is normally carried out in oil, however, can likewise be carried out in the water. To heat treat steel, I heat it up beyond âcherry redâ to glowing red. Apply the heat, either by putting the metal into the forge or oven, or by heating it with the torch. Once the 1975 degree temp has been reached, I wait until just before the timer expires to open the door and insert the knives. There are many ways to heat treat your blade and it will vary with the steel you’ve chosen as well as the equipment you have at your disposal. After the steel is warmed it is then either satiated or delegated air cool. Hold the metal with a pair of metal tongs. Farner now runs the heat treat department, as well as serves the custom knife makers. Now that you’ve heated and quenched your knife, you’re left with something hard and ugly [insert cheap penis reference here]. Required fields are marked *. Ideally, your oil should be at least 150°F degrees before you do the full submerge (stick your finger in the oil, it should feel like hot tap water at that temperature). This is how I did the heat treatment for my first few knives as well, except I used mesquite charcoal from the store. If your blade starts to glow yellow, it’s too hot. The next step of tempering the knife will heat it back up again, albeit at a lower temperature, to make it a little tougher and less fragile. Have a magnet nearby that you can use to test the polarity of the knifeâif the magnet still has pull, your knife has to go in longer. The best advice that I can give is to go to Alpha Knife Supply and look under their knife steel selections. There are many great tutorials online for creating your own forge (see here, here, or here), but the general idea is to create an environment that you can heat up to above 1450°F and hold there while you wash your knife in heat until it’s non-magnetic. When using a furnace with a PID and controlled temperatures, high alloy steels are usually âeasierâ to heat treat. Then, slowly lower a bit more of the knife in and wait for the flames to die down again. There are those who want you to believe the only way to achieve a good heat treat is by using a temperature regulated heat treating oven, soaking for 15.7 minutes, normalized 2.3 times, and then quenched in park's knife heat treating oil raised to exactly 134.6 degrees Fahrenheit. 1095 is the first choice of many knife makers because its easy to grind and hold a great edge. Cryo includes making use of liquid nitrogen to solidify the steel even further. My max is 4 knives at a time. You can find heat treating information listed there, however, my gut feeling is that S30V does not heat treat ⦠Although he has retired, Bos remains an intricate part of Buck's heat treat protocol. Two quarts should be enough and you should have it in a metal bucket or a large coffee can—something that won’t melt. Alternatively, check out this simple Soup Can Forge build that you can do yourself. While others are intricate and not quickly done. You can bring it out of the heat to cool down periodically to lengthen this process and make it easier on the metal to undergo this transformation. For simplicity sake cool to at least 150F before tempering. When your knife reaches the critical point, quench it in the oil. Step 1: Surface and Edge Preparation. Have a magnet nearby that you can use to test the polarity of the knife—if the magnet still has pull, your knife has to go in longer. With the torch, keep the metal in the hottest part of ⦠Bos handed down the heat treat role to Paul Farner, after successfully teaching him the ins and outs of the business for over 10 years. Whatever method you used,the final bevel should be on the blade and the surface should be brought to the desired finish. Tempering includes warming the knife to lower temperature levels (400-degree variety) a number of times. Essentially what occurs is your knife is put in a unique oven that heats up the metal to a specific temperature level (based upon the kind of steel). The precut knife blanks which we sell are all 1095 high carbon steel. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. At Clarke Knives we heat treat most grades of knife steels, both Carbon, Stainless & Damascus, up to a maximum length of 500mm (20â³). There are many techniques for creating a difference in properties, but most can be defined as either differential hardening or differential tempering. There are alternative grades that have more desirable properties, in my opinion, such as CPM-154 for better corrosion resistance, 10V/Vanadis 8/K390 for better edge retention, or CPM CruWear for better ⦠That said, Natlek is correct that if you have not already annealed it, and you have a decent grinder to shape with, you can keep it cool during shaping to preserve the original hardness, and just give it a couple of temper cycles at 350-375F. Without cryo the austenitizing temperature should be no higher than 1875°F. Final note: heat treating your steel is meant to harden it significantly. That said, use this as a, The basic process is as follows: heat your forge up to the, Making a gorgeous handmade custom camping knife, Crafting a full-blown kitchen knife from scratch, A guide to building a custom chef’s knife for the kitchen, How to make a hand-powered charcoal forge, How to make a knife handle out of birch bark and antler, © 2017 I Made A Knife! Stabilizing includes duplicated heating and cooling cycles at lower temperatures. Other steels like the 1095 can be quenched the second they hit critical. I think I probably did ok-ish. This procedure is variously based upon the kind of steel your blade is made from. Your email address will not be published. Most agree that the steel really needs to be cooled off at a high rate, like 1 to 2 seconds and, that is absolutely true. Touching a magnet to your knife is the quick and dirty way to gauge temperature, but you can find laser thermometers or heat-resistant thermometers to get a more accurate idea of how hot your blade might be. ’ t stick the blade as it cools blade as it is then either satiated or delegated air cool upon... Fahrenheit and allowing the blade and the surface should be brought to the oil a bit of! Water available for cooling clean the blade by setting an oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and allowing the in. 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