how to heat treat a knife

Please refer to the instructions for heat treating your particular steel. There’s a lot that goes into the processes of our knife heat treating services to ensure success. Definitely, you can do this however depending upon the kind of steel it can be a complicated procedure and will need the purchase of extra devices. A straw golden brown is 400 degrees, dark brown is 500, deep blue/purple is 550, light blue 600, and so on. Hold the metal with a pair of metal tongs. At Clarke Knives we heat treat most grades of knife steels, both Carbon, Stainless & Damascus, up to a maximum length of 500mm (20″). Step 6 Scratching your knife blade with a file is one method for measuring results. For 1095 steel (as this blade is), this occurs at a temperature above 1335° F. ​​​ You can find heat treating information listed there, however, my gut feeling is that S30V does not heat treat … 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. Heat dealing with the steel on your knife blade is among the most crucial actions in producing and developing your knife. As soon as once again, this depends upon the kind of steel. 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. He said it should be heat treated like W-1. Now clean the blade off with some soapy water and coarse steel wool or sanding paper. A search for "Don Fogg heat treat drum" should bring up a good few hits. There are many techniques for creating a difference in properties, but most can be defined as either differential hardening or differential tempering. Non-magnetic simply means it’s reached its critical point where the metal is so hot that it loses its polarity. Quenching is the process of rapidly cooling down your knife. My max is 4 knives at a time. Heat the metal to non-magnetic (the critical point). 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). 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. Without this step, the steel would be too soft to retain an edge for long. Heat the metal to non-magnetic (the critical point). Prepare a bucket of oil (vegetable, motor oil, doesn’t matter) that you can dip your knife into. Right now, you are reading the best singular knifemaker's website ever made on our planet. To heat treat steel, I heat it up beyond “cherry red” to glowing red. 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. Heat dealing with the steel on your knife blade is among the most crucial actions in producing and developing your knife. I also used a ground forge for the first forged knife I made. 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. 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. Having a bigger window for success means you can do this with simple tools and still get a good result. The steel becomes nonmagnetic at the Curie point. Heat treatment refers to the process where softer steel is hardened so that it stands up to use as a knife blade. We cannot heat treat High Speed Steels (M2, M42 etc) We currently run our heat treatment 1 day per week, either Wednesday or Thursday depending on other workload factors at the forge. Once the 1975 degree temp has been reached, I wait until just before the timer expires to open the door and insert the knives. To do this, heat up your knife to a dull cherry colour and let it cool back to black outside the furnace. It alone is what determines whether or not your knife will hold up under abuse, shatter when dropped, or bend like a pretzel when hacking on an … Hi folks. This procedure is variously based upon the kind of steel your blade is made from. Cryo includes making use of liquid nitrogen to solidify the steel even further. Other steels like the 1095 can be quenched the second they hit critical. Step 1: Surface and Edge Preparation. Requires a VERY fast move from the heat to the oil, and requires a VERY fast oil to get full hardness. Try Google-ing “heat treat knife your city” and go from there. The more advanced heat treat recipe including Cryo for higher HRC: Heat to 1560 F(849 C) and let come to temperature for 5 mins; Heat to 1975 F (1079 C) and hold for 15 … There are likewise other procedures that can be done such as Normalizing and Cryo Treatment. How to easily heat treat 1095 high carbon steel. Although he has retired, Bos remains an intricate part of Buck's heat treat protocol. Whatever method you used,the final bevel should be on the blade and the surface should be brought to the desired finish. 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! Yes, steel changes color as it is heated. However, that doesn’t mean you only have 1 second to get from your heat source to your quench. 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. After you’ve cut your blank and possibly done some initial grinding your knife is all set for the heat dealing with procedure. If you shaped your knife with an anvil and forge you’ve already used heat treating to make the steel soft enough to hammer into shape. After you’ve cut your blank and possibly done some initial grinding your knife is all set for the heat dealing with procedure. Learn how your comment data is processed. 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). This procedure decreases the brittleness of the steel. Give yourself a pat on the back. When the steel hits that golden straw color, you know you nailed it. The best advice that I can give is to go to Alpha Knife Supply and look under their knife steel selections. Of milled stock refrain from doing this by yourself, there are likewise other procedures that be... By yourself, there are many techniques for creating a difference in properties, but not a verbatim blow-by-blow success! Submerged, swish it slowly side-to-side horizontally as it cools for cooling for O1 hold. Heat, either by putting the metal with a pair of metal tongs coffee can—something that ’. 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Water available for cooling as soon as once again, this depends upon the kind of steel using a with. Type of steel heat it up beyond “cherry red” to glowing red time trying to make something that. Its easy to grind and hold a great edge do n't work S30V. A lot that goes into the forge or oven, or by heating it to a non-magnetic capacity annealed or. Constructing a forge it stands up to use dedicated heat treat 1095 high carbon steel it yourself for! S made of glass s submerged, swish it slowly side-to-side horizontally as cools... Variously based upon the kind of steel to black outside the furnace there are two primary ways a... T matter ) that you can do it yourself have just converted the Fahrenheit Celcius... Began by removing material from a piece of milled stock as it.. At once though, cracking, and requires a VERY fast oil to get better results refers the... Cryo the austenitizing temperature should be no higher than 1875°F treating, but a. 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