finished knife looks ??

graveyard

Well-Known Member
i make stockremovale knifes with a bbq. pit hairdryer .and handtools crude but there hard ive hade one re to come out of oil chench with what looks like a bad skin burn like hot oil from a stove there hard can not hand sand it all away HELP. what am i doing wrong

novist
 
A picture would be nice. Without being able to see what you're talking about it would be hard to say. Other information. How hot did you get your blade before you put in into the quenchant? What exactly were you using as a quenchant?

Doug
 
Just an educated guess, but what you described sounds like you way overheated the blade, segregated the elements, and grew the grain incredibly large. My mind envisions an area that looks like "speckles" or little "puddles" that do not sand out.
 
There's quite a bit of missing information that might be helpful (aside from pictures):

What kind of steel are you starting with?
How long and hot are you heating your steel?
What kind of quenchant are you using and how are you using it?
 
as( ED CAFFREYMS) clled segregated afeck the strench .i heath on charcoil quench in canola oil .i check befor quenching on a big car specker ?
 
It still may be that you are overheating the steel. Checking with a magnet will tell you if the steel is hot enough but not if it's too hot. If it looked like a bright yellowish orange to yellow the steel was over heated. The next time slowly heat the blade until it is just non-magnetic the get it just slightly brighter. Steel actually becomes non-magnetic just before it's ready to quench so you need to get it just a little hotter. Motor oil has been known to cause a texture on the surface of the steel but canola oil shouldn't do that so that makes me lean even more towards the steel was overheated.

Doug
 
I had what Ed described on my first few knives I made out of 01 steel using a motor oil quench (from the minivan....).

When heated carefully like Doug described and preheated my quenching oil to ~ 130°F (~60°C), it seemed to eliminate the problem. I also used a 1 brick forge.

Ric
 
I get what look like little blisters on the blade from by my charcoal coffee can forge. It was explained to me this way,

"your surface blisters are either just overheating the surface, or possibly getting surface infusion of carbon (kind of like case hardening) which lowers the melting temperature at the surface where the charcoal then touches the blade and spot overheats it."
 
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