Warping scares me!

[Beartracker]

Gannmade, That's a great looking bowie and the rest of your knives aint bad either, lol Great workmanship!. Mike

[Ray Rogers]

If the edge is too thin before the heat treat it will get wavy. That's not a good thing. I don't think I'd go any thinner on that edge right now.

As for mirror polishing or even just a little finer finish than you have now, that's probably not a good idea either. O1 will have to be oil quenched. Red hot steel meeting oil is not likely to maintain a miror finish. In fact, there will probably be at least a little pitting to grind out. Even if a miracle occurred and there was no pitting at all, you'd still have to clean up the fried oil that sticks to the blade .....

[Beartracker]

Ray, Thanks for the info. Guess I'm about ready then. Thanks fore all your help. Mike

[GANNMADE]

beartracker after heattreating you'll need to finish it again.I go to
400 grit the heat treat.The main thing is an even grind.

[Beartracker]

Thanks for your help and info again guy's. After i have it finished i want to heat blue it also. This will be a working , self defence against bear knife,lol. Also will be used heavy around camp and woods fore trimming brush and so on , Mike

[Mike Hull]

Originally posted by Beartracker
Thanks for your help and info again guy's. After i have it finished i want to heat blue it also.

I hate to say this, but heat blueing will ruin the temper in the blade.

These are the(basic) steps; heat the blade to non magnetic(between 1450-1550 degrees F), and quench in 125-140 degree oil(this leaves the blade hard, but brittle). Clean it up and put it in the oven at 350-400 degrees F for tempering, for a couple of hours(this removes the brittleness, and brings the blade to a usable hardness), depending on what you want for a final hardness.

So you see, if you take the blade up past the 350-400 temperature later, it will undo what you have already done. The higher the temperature, the softer the blade will get.

Maybe someone else has a recommendation.:confused:

[Ray Rogers]

Mike's right on about the blueing. As for the bears, that's something I know a little about being that I live with black bears. Have had them stick their noses in my shop to see what's going on.

If they get aggressive, get out of their way. The only ones I've seen get aggressive are the very young ones that don't know better, or a momma bear with cubs. Generally, just talking to them is all it takes to make them leave. I've been charged by a momma bear while her cubs stood at my feet and stopped her by simply telling her to stop. The tone of your voice can tell her your not dangerous if you do it right.

Shooting at them to drive them away only works the first couple of times. After that, they don't believe you any more.

Bears are easy to sneak up on. They can't see you if you stand still and are quiet, even in bright sunlight in the open. So, don't do that...make noise. They rely on their noses like we rely on our eyes. Even if they look right at you they won't believe what they see if the wind is towards you and they can't catch your scent.

Don't store edible garbage in the same area where you plan to be. That way, they have little incentive to get close to you. Anything with a remotely pleasant odor is potential food to them. I had one try to eat a foam rubber seat cushion last week. Foam rubber smells nice.

Don't meet a bears eyes. That can be interpreted as an agressive move on your part. Don't run from them, just back away. They are usually more than happy to see you go.

If a bear walks purposfully towards you, observe the position of his head. If he's just curious his head will be carried high, agressive and it will be low.

Don't feed him from your hand, or touch it's body. They will often instantly bite anything that touches them, especially if it hurts.

If I had to fight one I'd rather have a knife than nothing. But, the persuader that I find most useful is a simple squirt bottle filled with fresh Clorox. Squirt it on the ground in front of them and it's like a magic line they won't cross. Don't squirt it on them, just on the ground in front of them. Their noses are about 10 times better than a dog's and the chlorine really bothers them.

The bears around here are not pets but they are habituated to humans. I have had them walk to within 10 feet of me and lay down to take a nap simply because I was down wind and standing still. Nothing between us, they just couldn't smell me. If you find yourself in a position where you have to kill a bear to keep from being harmed yourself, you probably made a mistake somewhere....

[Beartracker]

Ray, In the past year in WV three people have been attacked by black bears and only one had cubs. That doesn't even begin to count the people who have been attacked and killed by black bears in the US in the past five years.
We have lot's of them here also and two weeks ago a guy was attacked and the only thing that saved him was a knife he had on him . The bear got away and they still haven't found it and the guy has over 150 stitches. Another may never use his hand again, it was almost tore off.
A guy in NJ was looking fore his missing dog in a woods behind his house when a 150# bear tore him up real bad.The bear had killed his cocker spanuel
Three weeks ago a 350# bore would not let me out of my tree stand while hunting deer. Last year one tried to pull me out of a stand and the year before that two cubs came to visit me and mom was not to happy about that.
So i know about bears and have seen what they can do and there strength is unbelieveable.
I walked right up to one on a logging road because i had my head down looking at tracks , It scared him as much as it did me but i was lucky. I had an extra pair of underwear in my truck,lol. Mike

[Beartracker]

Mike, Thanks fore the heads up. I was thinking that the heat blueing would not be hot enough to hurt the temper because it's done to gun barrels all the time. But gun barrles are not knives either, Thanks, Mike

[Mike Hull]

Y/W.

[T L Smith]

I don't think I would like to try to fire a gun with a heat blued barrel. The only heat bluing I have ever seen done on guns is on small screws and such.

T L

[Beartracker]

TL. The heat blueing I'm speaking of is done on alot of guns. There is also a rust blueing method that comes out very black and that's what i was going to use .But it requires the parts to be "boiled" for a few minutes each time you do the process and it can take up to 10 times depending on how dark you want it.
Cold blueing does not hold up on any gun that i have ever seen.
Heat blueing has been done on guns for many decades and it does get very hot. On double barrel shotguns the solder holding the barrels togeather will come apart and they must be resoldered.Mike

[T L Smith]

Ok, I think we need to get our terms straight. Hot Bluing (not heat bluing) is the method used by manufacturers and gunsmiths to make guns black. Rust Bluing is a controled rusting of the surface to produce a blue/black or brown surface. Cold blue is an acid that corrodes the surface of the metal to produce color.

Heat Bluing is heating the metal until it turns blue in color on the surface.

It is important to use the right term. Hot bluing and heat bluing are not the same thing.

Hot bluing is done at about 350*- 400* or so and will undo soft or lead based solder. It usually won't affect silver solder.

T L

[Ray Rogers]

Yup, bears are unbelievably strong, but I've never seen one that wouldn't rather run away if he had the chance - unless it was surprised, guarding cubs, or you were trying to separate it from food. Or mating season, that can get touchy too. Anyway, those types of uncertainties are why I never step out my door without my .44 mag. It goes on with my pants in the morning. So far, I've always been able to 'talk' my way out of bear problems but I always have my backup plan in case the bear isn't listening to what I have to say. Stay safe ........

[Beartracker]

Good idea on the .44 mag Ray. Sure wish i lived in an area like yours. Sounds beautiful to me.Mike