Heat treating an double edged knife

Brad Lilly

Moderator and Awards Boss
I'm looking for advice. I bought Ed Caffrey's video on knife making a while back and I was trying to heat treat 5160 his way (Edge quench 3 times and temper 3 times 2h at 350). So far this has been working out well for me, but now my crazy brother wants a knife to stab a pig. Apparently you can hog hunt with a big knife in some states. The outfitter recomends a sharpend clip. So I would like to build a knife out of 5160 with a hardend clip, but it needs to be very strong. Right now I was thinking of heating the whole blade to non magnetic 3 times and quenching in oil but tempering around 400 deg to give me a little more flex. I would think edge holding would not be as big a factor as durability.

Anyone have any thoughts? or advice?

Thanks
Brad
 
Personally, I think that your plan sounds pretty good. You could also try a draw temper along the unsharpened spine. Put the sharp parts in a tray of wet sand as a heat sink.

Doug
 
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