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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 03-01-2011, 07:01 PM
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cbr900son cbr900son is offline
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Heat treat: DIY or send off???

Well got a few knives that are at the point of heat reating. Not sure if i want to send off to get heat treated or just invest in the equipment and learn to do myself. Any opinions here?
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Old 03-01-2011, 09:06 PM
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What steel are you using?


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  #3  
Old 03-01-2011, 09:22 PM
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cbr900son cbr900son is offline
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01 and d2 but just trying to decode if its worth the time and money to learna nd build something to treat them myself or if sending them off is better. Not sure and curious what others thought.
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Old 03-01-2011, 10:33 PM
Doug Lester Doug Lester is offline
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O1 is rather simple to heat treat, it is an oil quenching steel and would probably temper to a good hardness at about 400 degrees. Though there are those who would argue that it takes a regulated oven to get the best performance from it. I hope that those who have actually used it will add to the discussion but you could do a search for previous posts. O1 has been discussed more than once on this board. D2 is an air hardening steel and is beyond the average knife maker with just a propane forge and a toaster oven to temper in. It would benifit from a preheat and a soak before being ramped up to full austinizing temperature and it tempers at temperature above what simple equiptment will achieve. It also cannot be normalized and annealing would be difficult without a regulated heat treating oven.

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Old 03-01-2011, 11:28 PM
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CJS Knives CJS Knives is offline
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i prefer to send out my blades.
the huge expense is definitely one reason, but the main concern is that it seems like the whole heat treating process is an exact science. just read the last comment and you will have to agree! there is a lot of stuff you need to know to do it right.
plus lets say you do all that work to the blade, then go to heat treat it and mess it up! man i would be pissed!! with a professional you have a lot less of a chance of that happening.

i think being able to say to your customers that you have the blades professionally heat treated sounds more professional and gives them reassurance that it will be done right. unless you can say, " i have been making knives for over 20 years" that is!

just my opinion and its where i stand on the matter.


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  #6  
Old 03-02-2011, 05:17 AM
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Yeah while i love the idea of doing it myself I don't want to ruin the work i put into them so far. Any idea on who to use and what kind of prices i should expect?
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  #7  
Old 03-02-2011, 08:57 AM
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Ray Rogers Ray Rogers is offline
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Most of us start by sending out our blades and eventually get to the point where we are ready to do our own heat treatment. Since the heat treatment is what truly makes a piece of steel into a blade we just naturally want to do it ourselves in order to be a complete knife maker.

Even so, there aren't many choices f or sending out carbon blades, most all the pro heat treaters only process stainless blades. This is because carbon blades are relatively easy for anyone to do while stainless is very demanding. So, you may want to consider either doing the O1 yourself or putting it aside and making a stainless blade. I agree with the statements above that O1 also benefits from a more controlled heat treatment than can be done with a forge but it will still make a good blade even with a half-arsed heat treat,

Finally, throw away the D2, it will likely be nothing but trouble and there are better steels to make a tough blade from. And, get over your fear of how bad you'll feel if your heat treatment doesn't work. Making the blade before heat treat is the easy part. It gets even easier if you have a belt sander because you can heat treat the profiled blade first and then grind the bevels afterward if you really want to make sure the heat treat works before you invest much time in the blade .....


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Old 03-02-2011, 10:22 AM
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good advice Ray.
in my opinion, i wouldnt do stainless. carbon steel is the way to go. it seems most knife users out there who buy custom knives prefer carbon over stainless. in my experience anyway.

save the D2 for a later time.

look up Drew from AR Custom Knives. http://www.knifenetwork.com/forum/member.php?u=16486 he is a member here on this forum and a local guy for me, and he does all my heat treating. i am unable to do my own, and Drew has a very nice set up allready and lots of knowledge on how to do it. his prices are great too! you can send me a PM and i can give you his email if you need too.

most heat treating guys require a minimum of blades for an order. so the estimate of how much per blade may be fairly cheap, its because they have a 20 blade minimum order. (as an example) i know that PAUL BOS is like that.... http://www.buckknives.com/resources/...s_Brochure.pdf

hope this helps,


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Old 03-02-2011, 08:15 PM
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Would you mind sending me his email?
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Old 03-02-2011, 09:39 PM
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no prob... pm sent!!


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  #11  
Old 11-13-2014, 12:17 AM
dugan26 dugan26 is offline
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Hi -

Total new guy - just finished reading the books recommended in the forum ... just ordered the basic tools and steel ... and was hoping someone could recommend a place to send off knives for the heat treatment ...

links please

many thanks in advance
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  #12  
Old 11-13-2014, 08:27 AM
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Ray Rogers Ray Rogers is offline
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For the most part we try to do our own heat treating. You didn't say what steel you had ordered, not all heat treaters can HT all steels. Most commercial heat treaters don't HT knives properly so you need someone who specializes in knives.

For air quenching stainless steels Texas Knifemakers is popular and affordable. For simple carbon steels Peters Heat Treating is recommended. Sorry I don't have links handy but they are easy to google or using the Search feature on this forum should find them ....


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Old 11-17-2014, 12:16 PM
dugan26 dugan26 is offline
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Many thanks!

Using Carbon Steels
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Old 11-17-2014, 03:48 PM
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Andrew Garrett Andrew Garrett is offline
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For me, heat treating is where a 'knife shaped object' becomes a knife--it's when the blade is 'born'.

I simply have to be there for that.

If I could not heat treat the steel, I wouldn't use it. That's just my choice.

It's not hard. You can do it with a propane torch and loaf pan of veg oil if you choose a simple steel and pay attention.

I demand 100% sole authorship of my knives from billet, all the way through the sheath work. That way, I have no excuses.


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