Heat Treating in Evansville, IN or Louisville, KY

Chances are pretty good that you will not find anything locally. I grew up in southern IN., and am still pretty familiar with that area...not much available in the way of commercial heat treating, especially none that I would trust to do knife blades. Options include locating another knifemaker who would be willing to do the heat treat for you (you can find most active makers listed in the Knives Annual), or you might have to send the blade out.....try checking the sources here on the forums for that. If you go with someplace like TKS (Texas Knifemaker Supply) or somewhere similar, they have minimums, which means you would be paying a premium if you only have one blade to heat treat.
 
Gil Hibben has done some heat treating for folks when doing his own. I do a lot of my heat treating over at his shop and sometimes he has had other peoples blades in with ours. You may contact Gil and ask if he will do the O1 for you since it obviously can't go in with our stainless blades. Still he may be willing to do it when we are doing some Damascus though.

We live about 15-20 minutes from Louisville.
 
I live in Evansville.

Ed pretty much summed it up in his post.

Currently, any items needing a "proper" heat treating process are taken to the local tool & die shop a few blocks away from me. They do not do it themselves; they ship it out.

The only heat treating I have done myself thus far: I forged some scrapers and chisels out of old files in a charcoal forge, quenching with water and/or old motor oil.
This was before I learned more about the processes of heat treating, and the only reason it was done was to have those tools.
Considering how "primitive" my methods were, I feel these tools are better than almost anything I could have purchased!

Currently, I am in the process of building a couple of different gas forges; should be ready this coming spring.
I also have a "Big Knife Kiln" from Sugar Creek Industries, courtesy of my ex who was an art major and heavily involved with ceramics! Wiring for 220 for that kiln is also on the agenda this coming spring.
I'm especially interested in using the kiln for its capabilities on stainless.

When I'm up and running, I'm gonna have to play with everything a while simply to learn and get experience. When I feel comfortable doing it well, I'll give ya a holler.
Till then, unless we're set up to do it ourselves, we're pretty much stuck shipping it out.
If you want it done locally, it might not hurt to call various tool & die, or even machine shops to get some leads.

As big as Evansville is, I have only found one place locally that advertises heat treating:
General Stamping & Coatings (812)422-7769
I know nothing about this company, so do not know if they specialize in certain products or not. I also do not know if they actually do it or sub it out elsewhere, but it's a lead.
For now, you're probably going to have better luck going towards Louisville instead of Evansville simply due to the much larger population of businesses catering to industry. Also, don't overlook the obvious- check their yellow pages.

Good luck,
Robert
 
Hi Rob,
Thanks for the reply. Yes, I'm also thinking of Louisville. I'm just having a fun time making the knife. I was hoping I might be able to hook up with a local maker. It seems like there are a few knife makers from KY on here.
 
If you are going to send it out, send it to Brad at Peter's HT. If you call TKS, they are going to charge you a premium IF they take your blade. They only HT air hardening steels (last I spoke to them).
 
I live in KY and grew up insouthern IN. I don't know of anyone in the E-ville area that does heat treat. I do my own in my shop. Where did you live in southern IN Ed?
 
That's where I grew up. I graduated from Perry Central. Small world ain't it. My folks still live up there but just like the Egyptians I got tired of looking across the river to see the promiseland so I just moved over there.
 
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