So, yesterday I was able to shape, mud, and heat treat a blank for a new knife. Here's a couple pics of the process. Now comes grinding (the slowest part of the process for me).
Profile ground out, and mud applied. Little glamor shot above the woods I'm thinking of using for the piece. Don't mind the mess.
Heating up the quenching oil. I usually take it a little past where it needs to be, as it's going to cool slightly when I move it to the shop.
Just getting everything ready. Don't need to be running around setting things up once the knife goes in the kiln. Preheating to 1475.
The knife is going in the kiln now. Following Larrin's heat treating. 1475 for a 10 minute soak.
The knife is out and quenched. No extra hands to take pictures of that part, but actions need to be smooth and controlled. The blank in the picture is ~68hrc and has been washed in soapy water, so my wife doesn't kill me when I temper in the oven at 300.
After two tempers, here the knife sits at ~65hrc. Side note, this is my third hardness tester. the first was a chinese piece of crap that didn't work out of the box. I learned a valuable lesson with that. Don't buy chinese when looking for quality. Though it didn't work on arrival, they would not give me a refund, and since I can't get tracking in China, the company refused to accept the package, and Paypal/ebay could do nothing about it. $600 down the drain. The second one I bought was listed as antique but working. It was not working, but I was able to get a refund on that one, since the seller was in the USA, and admitted to me that he hadn't tested it. After all that, I ended up getting a brand new tester from Ames. It was not cheap, not even close. May not look fancy, but the readings have been super accurate, regardless of the analog scale.
More to come later, though now is the time/labor intensive part.
Profile ground out, and mud applied. Little glamor shot above the woods I'm thinking of using for the piece. Don't mind the mess.
Heating up the quenching oil. I usually take it a little past where it needs to be, as it's going to cool slightly when I move it to the shop.
Just getting everything ready. Don't need to be running around setting things up once the knife goes in the kiln. Preheating to 1475.
The knife is going in the kiln now. Following Larrin's heat treating. 1475 for a 10 minute soak.
The knife is out and quenched. No extra hands to take pictures of that part, but actions need to be smooth and controlled. The blank in the picture is ~68hrc and has been washed in soapy water, so my wife doesn't kill me when I temper in the oven at 300.
After two tempers, here the knife sits at ~65hrc. Side note, this is my third hardness tester. the first was a chinese piece of crap that didn't work out of the box. I learned a valuable lesson with that. Don't buy chinese when looking for quality. Though it didn't work on arrival, they would not give me a refund, and since I can't get tracking in China, the company refused to accept the package, and Paypal/ebay could do nothing about it. $600 down the drain. The second one I bought was listed as antique but working. It was not working, but I was able to get a refund on that one, since the seller was in the USA, and admitted to me that he hadn't tested it. After all that, I ended up getting a brand new tester from Ames. It was not cheap, not even close. May not look fancy, but the readings have been super accurate, regardless of the analog scale.
More to come later, though now is the time/labor intensive part.