I am new on this forum and new to knife making. This is the third blade I have forged and thought I would throw this out for some help.
I am working on a blade of 5160 aprox 3/16" at the thickest part of the spine and aprox 5" long. I did a triple quench in mineral oil. Triple tempered in the kitchen oven getting as close to 380F as I could for 2 hours each. I used a seperate digital thermometer with a probe inside the oven to also monitor the temperature. One thing I noticed is when the oven would go though a cycle to maintain temp it would go past 392F (the limit of my digital thermometer).
The result was a blade with a slight gold color to it. This blade got sharper than any blade I have ever made or owned. I now understand scary sharp. I did a flex test by pressing the blade against the edge of the metal top to my table saw. No chipping or rolling, I chopped about halfway through a 2x2 and the blade would still shave hair, but had lost some sharpness. However, it will only get about 35 cuts on 3/4" hemp rope.
I am thinking the oven got too hot and tempered too much. Any thoughts or suggestions
I am working on a blade of 5160 aprox 3/16" at the thickest part of the spine and aprox 5" long. I did a triple quench in mineral oil. Triple tempered in the kitchen oven getting as close to 380F as I could for 2 hours each. I used a seperate digital thermometer with a probe inside the oven to also monitor the temperature. One thing I noticed is when the oven would go though a cycle to maintain temp it would go past 392F (the limit of my digital thermometer).
The result was a blade with a slight gold color to it. This blade got sharper than any blade I have ever made or owned. I now understand scary sharp. I did a flex test by pressing the blade against the edge of the metal top to my table saw. No chipping or rolling, I chopped about halfway through a 2x2 and the blade would still shave hair, but had lost some sharpness. However, it will only get about 35 cuts on 3/4" hemp rope.
I am thinking the oven got too hot and tempered too much. Any thoughts or suggestions