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Old 06-12-2013, 11:25 AM
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Ray Rogers Ray Rogers is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Wauconda, WA
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KITH Preparation Class - Heat Treating

As most of you know, some of us just participated in a KITH that was particularly aimed at the newest members in this forum. It was a lot of fun and very educational. Part of the purpose this KITH was to get your knife tested by someone else. In the process of doing this we discovered that some of the blades had not achieved optimal heat treatment.

So, before we do another KITH we decided in our Chat last Sunday (why weren't you all there?) that we should try to bring everyone up to speed on basic heat treating. This is your chance to make a very simple blade and have it thoroughly tested to see that the heat treat is as good as it should be.

The idea is that everyone who participates will make a basically identical blade from 1084. The blade will be a simple full flat grind, full tang, and finished to no more that 220 grit and have a simple wood handle attached. That's it.

The knives will be shipped to me so that I can do a hardness test on each one. Then, the knives will all be shipped to Eli Jensen who has volunteered to do the comparative and destructive testing and report the results on each one.

A pattern will be provided for you to use in making your blade. If necessary, I will order the steel so that we know everyone has exactly the same steel. This will require a few dollars from you to cover the cost of the steel. Basically, I'll order a large pieces from Aldo and you buy a 12" piece from me very cheap.

All you need is some way to heat treat your blades. It doesn't matter what way you do it, all that matters is that you think it works - the testing will determine whether or not you were right about that.

Once we get everyone up to speed on their heat treating we'll have another KITH. There is no schedule set for all this yet but, most likely, it will happen in the next 8 weeks or so. If you are interested in learning how to or improving your HT process on simple carbon steels just say so in this thread. I'll sketch out a knife pattern and put it up for discussion in the Chat Room this Sunday. If you would like to have some input on the design just drop in between 5 pm - 8 pm Pacific time on Sunday ....

Here is the pattern (1/8" stock please):



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Last edited by Ray Rogers; 09-04-2013 at 11:03 AM.
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