First knife (mostly) completed! (pics)

[bornofmud]

Hey guys, posted here a week or so ago about if I could heat treat large-ish knives with a two brick forge.  A little experimenting with a file, a decided it was at least worth a try.  It went very well for a first heat treat. I played the blade back and forth, keeping the tip with a good amount less time near the torch port.  Got the 1084 to non magnetic, gave it a fifteen count, saw the color jump from red to orange (heat treated at lateish dusk), was even along the blade and tip, immediately quenched in 130F canola oil.  Gave it a ten count, moving the knife in a cutting motion after the vertical dunk, took it out and waited till room temp.  Immediately put it in the oven preheated to 420F, tempered for two hours.

For a first, I am very pleased with it, and learned a lot both about shaping and heat treating.  I'm sure the next one will be better, will be sure to get ALL scratches out before heat treating next time if nothing else haha. I appreciate all the info you guys have made available here! Will probably post a coupe more pics when I've got a finish on the handle and have finished cleaning it up.  

 

 

[D.Ellis]

Nice job     sounds like your HT should be pretty good. Did you do any grain refinement cycles before the heat for the quench?
Do a bunch of cutting and see how the edge holds up........chop into wood, slice a bunch of cardboard etc. Learn as much as you can from it and then apply that knowledge to the next one.......
 
Darcy  

[bornofmud]

Thanks! I didn't do any grain refinement as it's a stock removal blade and I wasn't sure if it was necessary.  I did all the grinding on an edge sander with a bucket of water, would grind for 5-10 seconds, dunk in the water, repeat.  Made an effort to keep the steel from heating up.  I ordered the steel from NJ steel baron, it came very nicely annealed.  You think thermal cycles before the quench would still help?  I didn't have any warping at all from the quench, but it is a largish blade, so that kind of makes sense.

Haven't put a real edge on it yet, wanted to make a sheath before getting it reeeal sharp, kind of hard to stuff in a bag to show some folks if it keeps slicing up the bag haha.  I did do a chop test with the front 1/3 of the blade, chopped through a 1x2 of fir with a pretty dull blade in a hurry, there was no deformation of the blade or chipping afterwards, but I'll have to try on some hardwood to really see.  Am excited to start giving it some tests and seeing how the ht came out.

[D.Ellis]

You can't tell what steel has gone thru before you get it, so I personally like to do some reducing heats to refine grain structure regardless of shaping method(hammer and anvil or stock removal)..... I don't like to leave things to chance.
If a 1x2 of fir dulled the blade quick, I would suggest you may not have gotten full hardness from the quench?? I chop thru pine knots (at least 3 inches worth) and then wack away on a moose antler to test my knives........edge is still pretty sharp afterwards, and even being thin at the edge they are not chippy at all. I temper 1084 at 400*F after several grain reduction cycles and a 4 or 5 minute soak at 1500*.......quenched in 130* canola...
Darcy  

[bornofmud]

Sorry, I didn't mean the chopping dulled the blade, I meant I hadn't put a sharp edge on the blade yet, just rough ground.  I'll do some thermal cycles on my next one!  Thanks for the advice.  Gonna get to some testing this weekend after putting a real edge on the knife!  Got some antler chunks I can test on, and some hardwoods.

[D.Ellis]

OK that's good........look forward to hearing the test reports.
Darcy