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Old 08-05-2016, 12:27 PM
Doug Lester Doug Lester is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Decatur, IL
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It would be difficult to quench the blade from the tip of the blade to the tip of the tang. The tongs would slow the cooling of the steel where you are holding it. Some people don't even like to quench the tang much past the junction with the blade, especially with full tang knives. That leaves the tang soft for drilling. Some like to quench well above that point to give the tang more strength. It's a trade-off; strength vs toughness and machinability.

If you have a forge with a pass through port on the back side you can heat treat a blade that is probably twice the depth of the fire chamber. My small forge is seven inches deep and it's easy to heat treat a ten inch long blade. Also the port on the back lets me stick the tip out to keep it from over heating. You just have to work things back and forth and keep an eye on the color of the blade. It's also not a bad idea to do your heat treating after sundown so that you can see the color better.

Doug


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