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The Newbies Arena Are you new to knife making? Here is all the help you will need.

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  #1  
Old 02-13-2013, 10:35 PM
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ricky_arthur ricky_arthur is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Utah
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Well, this wasn't productive. Or Maybe it was...

I have 5 smaller knives in the works and 2 of them I promised to have ready for Valentines day. So I got all 5 ready for heat treat. Did 3 normalization cycles. Quenched the first one, no problems. Quenched the second (the only one that was Hollow ground) And it warped all to heck. I threw it back in the forge to anneal it and got the 3rd ready. It was the largest of the 5. It warped too. Since both were promised by tomorrow, I couldn't risk breaking them by straightening them after quench. So I annealed both and re quenched. The larger one came out good, the hollow ground one warped again only not quite as bad. I decided to temper them all and see if I could straighten it after tempering.

So after temper I took them all to the shed to clean them up. I noticed one of the others had a very slight curve right in the center between the blade and handle. I walked over to the anvil and tap, tap, tap. Nothing, tap, tap tap...Nothing

TAP!

Danggit!

You can see the stress area I left that caused the break.

I know everyone loves 1084, but I never had a 1095 blade warp on me, I'm about to switch back. At least 1 out of 3 with the 1084 will warp. Even small ones.

anyway, I decided it was a good opportunity to check grain size and so I cut it in half, and was pleasantly surprised. The pic is hard to see because the light makes it look funny but in person the grain is small enough that it is hard to see grain with the naked eye.



I was wondering how The grain would look using my heat treat method and now I know. I guess it was worth throwing about 3 hours of work in the garbage.

Last edited by ricky_arthur; 02-13-2013 at 10:42 PM.
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Old 02-14-2013, 06:15 AM
Imakethings Imakethings is offline
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What were you using as your quench?
The only reason I've had blades crack and warp is when I've got something wrong on the hardening process, usually the quench cooling the steel too fast.
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Old 02-14-2013, 07:45 AM
Bowman Bowman is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ricky_arthur View Post
You can see the stress area I left that caused the break.
...or it could have been the hammer

I had to say it...

Sorry for the bad luck, but at least you got some good info out of it
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Old 02-14-2013, 08:27 AM
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ricky_arthur ricky_arthur is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Imakethings View Post
What were you using as your quench?
The only reason I've had blades crack and warp is when I've got something wrong on the hardening process, usually the quench cooling the steel too fast.
Texaco 70

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bowman View Post
...or it could have been the hammer

I had to say it...

Sorry for the bad luck, but at least you got some good info out of it

Lol ouch, True. But I've been straightening blades with a hammer since I swithced to 1084.

A couple times right after quench and before temper, But I knew it was a matter of time before one broke. The second one that was hollow ground also broke after I posted this.


I'm thinking I need a slightly hotter temper.

Also I need to either go back to 1095 or Canola oil, or both cause that combo wasn't warping blades.
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Old 02-14-2013, 09:37 AM
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Ray Rogers Ray Rogers is offline
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I've had plenty of 1095 blades warp. I don't think the type of steel is your problem but you may have gotten a problematic batch of steel. Try adding about three normalizing cycles to your HT process for this batch of steel and you should be able to avoid warpage.

Also, I get the impression that you are trying to straighten your blades when they are cold or maybe just warm. That's an excellent way to break your blades, and never use a hammer to straighten the blade unless you're still forging it. The best way is to straighten during the normalizing cycle when you can see that the blade is warping and the blade is soft. If the blade is still has color you can use the hammer but a bending jig is much better and safer. Keep normalizing and straightening until there is no more warp. If there is any warping when you quench it should be very slight and it can be ground out when you finish the blade ...


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