heathtreating knife with aluminum thumbguard

[Norwegian forge]

the last one is actually the factory piec i broke of in that hufe bending machine, couldnet brak it without, and it sounded pretty load, so its hard for sure, but like i said, it takes a good while to work on somthing thats allready hardened, and use alot of resourses on grinding it down, and i dont really learn to heatreat it at all.

[jmccustomknives]

Ok, now that you've found a piece that might make a good knife here's the next step. Forge out another piece, make this one 12cm or so and 1cm wide. Heat the entire piece evenly and quench. Now, polish one side or both would be preferable and pre heat your oven (I keep a toaster oven in my shop for this). Start at 350F (sorry, we don't think in C here) after a hour take it out. Inspect the color. You are looking for a dark yellow or straw color. If that color isn't obtained increase the heat by 25F and repeat until the desired color is reached.
For simple carbon steel these colors will help you identify the proper tempering temperature. The learning curve here is tough but needed to make a quality blade.

[Ray Rogers]

Originally Posted by Norwegian forge

the last one is actually the factory piec i broke of in that hufe bending machine, couldnet brak it without, and it sounded pretty load, so its hard for sure, but like i said, it takes a good while to work on somthing thats allready hardened, and use alot of resourses on grinding it down, and i dont really learn to heatreat it at all.

Exactly. That's why you want to put that steel through the annealing process that we discussed before. That makes it soft so that you can work with it. Then re-harden the steel using the magnet to get the temperature just right. After that, use the process IMCUSTOM described in the last post to temper the blade which will soften it just enough that it is not brittle. For tempering you will need an electric oven because the temperature must be exact and must be held for at least one hour. Since the temperature required is low, about 400 F, an ordinary toaster oven is often used. Your kitchen oven will also work but the smell of burning oil might get you in trouble if you are married ....

[Norwegian forge]

Thanks guys this is of good help to me, have been sick for a few days now so i havent gotten to put this to practice, but ive tryed that steal that never hadened and done those prosesses with the oven, but it was all a disaster since it wasent even hardened, but yea, il be sure to do that.

[Norwegian forge]

hardened a bunch of more steal laying around, found 3 different types, one i soaked for probably 15 min
I forgot i put it in there, but it hardened, 8 mm thick, so not really knife dimentions, but it was fun hardening it, those other ones was about 3-4 MM, so nice for my first succsesfull small knifes i think,

https://drive.google.com/folderview?...E0&usp=sharing

[Doug Lester]

I'm glad that you worked your problem out. Hang in there.

Doug