I broke it! (whimper)

[hammerdownnow]

I can't believe I broke this blade. I even made a smaller one to test on each step first. The test blade hardend and tempered fine. My fault I am sure. The first edge quench in veg oil did not give me a high enough temper line , so I did it again. That time I had a soft spot near the riccasso. I got the bright idea to try a water quench. As I quenched I heard a far away screaming sound and saw the blade warp. I took it out of the quench and tried to straighten by hand. It snapped like a stale pretzel. This is the thinnest blade I ever made 1/16" I am bummed, and imigestation has beengiving me a fit. I hope the pic shows up.

[GANNMADE]

I tried the super quench one time and one time only with same result

[BrB]

what was yor steel and what was whater temp?

It could have worked with the right combination of factors you know... the previous stress from the two quenches could also have been a adding circunstance too.

[McAhron]

[Terry_Dodson]

sorry about the blade. did you normalise or anneal in between quenches?

[hammerdownnow]

It as my intergral made from a tire iron. prolly 1070 or 80. I used warm tap water. No, I did not normalize between quenches. I did temper tho. I guess I built up too much stress. Hind sight, ehh? Thanks for the empathy guys!

[jdlange]

Bummer man,

Has happened to me as well....ya get in a hurry and forget to normalize before treating again and "tink". It sucks.......................but on to the next. Perhaps the next one will turn out better anyway................that has also happened to me quite a few times, perhaps it was fate?

[jdlange]

BTW, I have found that one those blade you want a nice line (at least for me), transmission fluid works very well. Do you heat in the forge for quench or do you edge heat with a torch? Edge only heating will give a much more defined temper line as well.

[BrB]

Once me and Sfreddo spent the whole weekend forging a hirazukuri wakisashi from a 14" nicholson file. It was a very inpressive piece of steel. Than one more day for the grinding and proper adjustments. It was our first experience with whater quench and 1095. It was beautifull but it cracked all over. At first I got very disapointed, but Sfreddo told me not to be. He said we learned a lot with that blade, and should be gratefull for that. The bottom line is: it is just a piece of iron untill you are finished with it. Getting emotional, specialy with first time try of some sort, is no good.

[GANNMADE]

don't feel bad I broke one this friday I got in a hurry.

[McAhron]

i did a little experimenting with quenching 1095 in water this weekend,i found that 1095 is not a very good candidate for water quenches unless you clay back the spine and put a very thin layer on the part of the blade to be hardened,seems clay would help other steels as well.

[GANNMADE]

when I say I got in a hurry I had not made a knife in a while and skip cycle or two and used a water oil mix that I use for w1.