little bit of help

[victordonald]

ive been in the business of making knives since about 13 (i was a weird kid.....scratch that still am) and have a problem now i have a pile of knives sitting here that i cant finish because i cant find anyone in the area who will heat treat them. ( they all want much bigger items and orders then i have sitting on my bench) so i have decided to heat treat them myself they are all o-1 fixed blades with a full tang.
can some one give me a proper step by step to do this my self and would it also be possible to do with an oxy/acetylene torch or would i be wasting my time and money as i dont at the moment have the funds or all the materials to finish building my forge.
i have watched a LOT of videos on you tube on the subject and am fairly sure i have the basic idea and technique down mentally but would like the opinion of the guys who do this on a regular basis
thanks guys victor

[cnccutter]

Victor you can get a perfectly serviceable blade by heat treating them your self with a torch at home. you will not achieve the maximum capability's of O1 though unless you step up and get a more controlled heat.

that being said, when i have heat treated O1 with my rosebud torch, i start with a slow heat starting on the spine of the blade and working out from there. i try to keep the heat away from the cutting edge side and let the heat draw out to it. do not start heating broadside of your blank unless you want a cupped blade. try as hard as you can to keep the rise in heat as even as you can. you don't want to overheat and burn a spot.

if you are just learning this it will be tough for you to see the proper color so I'd get you to bring it up to nonmagnetic and just a bit more and hold for a minute. quench the blade. i use olive oil and have had good luck. i test most of my blades and they seem to come in at about a r62-r63. this isn't as good as you can get with O1 but fine for a lot of knives.

i try and temper right away. 2, 2hour cycles in my oven at 475 and they come down to a r58-r59.

again, you wont get perfect results and best Aus#tenitize growth this way but I have a bunch of knives I've sold with this method, and haven't had any issues.

practice and notes should be part of this for you.

Erik

[victordonald]

thanks so much thats very helpfull its things like starting at the spine kinda tricks i was looking for as with out that i would have started broadside top near the spine working down rotateing back and forth on either side cupping of the blade never even crossed my mind

[cnccutter]

you might take a look here for more info on O1 heat treating.

http://www.cashenblades.com/steel/o1.html

Erik

[victordonald]

thats really a great help thanks a lot im really glad to be back in the forum the willingness to help each other around here is very refreshing with the way this crazy world of ours is headed

[Crex]

Never done O1 with a torch personally, but have a good friend that gets decent results doing it that way. Probably in the range that Erik is talking about. He's been doing it for several years and probably can give you some insight to little tricks that make things go smoother.
Canola oil warmed to 100-120 degF will give good results (not top end mind you).
He does his heating in a low light room, almost dark so he can watch the color change better and not overheat the cutting edge as the temp comes up.
He is over on the Bladeforums more than here. His name is Brian Goode, if you want to contact him and pick his brain a bit. Tell him I sent you his way. He may have a website by now so you might do a google.