Knife blank point heat treat problem?

Pedro G.

Well-Known Member
I've just recently finished the edge on my knife blade. It's a full flat grind blade and has a swage point. But somehow I ground the tip a little faster than the rest by .5 mm and now that I finished the grinding the point i show it should be after HT. I am afraid that the point will break or melt off during HT. What can I do?
Thank you
-Pedro
 
If the point looks like it is getting too hot, quench the tip and then return the knife to the forge. The tip will reheat as the rest of the blade comes up to temperature. It might also help to turn the gas back on the forge to reduce the temperature. If you have a pass through forge you can heat the back part of the knife by sticking the tip out the pass through port. When the back of the knife heats you can then bring the point into the fire chamber. This is something that is a normal occurance in heat treating. The tip is almost always thinner and and narrower than the rest of the knife and will tend to heat faster than the thicker and wider parts.

Doug
 
It's not a gas forge :/ I use charcoal in a little brick thing I made. (It's not even sealed off).
Hahaha it doesn't help that my knife is 1/4" huh?

-Pedro
 
It gets easier with a charcoal forge. You can arrange the fire so that the end sticks out if it is overheating. You can also put the bade on it's spine in the forge with the edge higher up in the fire to reduce the heat to there. Quenching the overheated part and returning it to the fire and letting it heat back up as the thicker parts come up to temperature can still be done. You can ease up on the air that you feed into the fire and decrease the temperature. Solid fuel forges have an advantage over gas forges in isolating and controling the heat.

One quarter inch stock really doesn't have all that much to do with it. Points and edges still heat up faster on blades made from 1/8" inch stock. Keeping the temperature of the forge down and heating the blade slowly mitigates this but some times you either have to remove that section from the heat or you have to quench the overheated part and bring it back up to heat.

You will learn all this. Relax.

Doug
 
Yea I just wanted to post this meanwhile I get the knife ready for HT. I have to hand sand it right now so I've got some time before I try anything.
Thank you doug.
-Pedro
 
Last edited:
It's not a gas forge :/ I use charcoal in a little brick thing I made. (It's not even sealed off).
Hahaha it doesn't help that my knife is 1/4" huh?

-Pedro

I'd love to see a picture of your forge. Mine is made from a coffee can.
 
Here are some pictures that i just took.
This is my forge. It's just some bricks and cinderblocks I stacked up. Their not held together by anything. I put a pipe through em and a piece of sheet metal in between the fire bricks and cinderblocks.
IMAG0291.jpg


This is the area where the heating happens. It looks pretty pale since I havent used it in a year or so. The hole is where the air comes out and some of the ashes go. I have an extra bit of pipe at the bottom with a screw cap so I can take the fallen ashes out. It's a pretty small area and the bricks around here usually crack after a weeks worth of use.
IMAG0292.jpg


This is the front view. It has a pretty long tunnel but not much fire so there's not too much it does to help. Plus the wall in the back is about a foot away from the forge. *couldn't put the forge anywhere else :p*
IMAG0293.jpg


And just to throw this in. This is the 80 lb iron H beam I use as an anvil for now. It dents pretty badly but it's a fix (It was only like 15$) It's been pretty tough so far.
IMAG0295.jpg


There you LonePine :)
-Pedro G.
 
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