Doug, Rob & James,
Thanks Guys,
I have been holding this steel for over 2 years, I did inventory last night and found that not only do I have a 2' bar I also have 1 that is about 10"! With the idea of useing this to make Christmas presents, I think I'll stay on a the safe side and send them to Peter's HT, I want these to be the BEST they can possibly be, and since I'm not quite ready to commit to the higher end steels, I'll send it to Peter's. I met them at BLADE last year and they are wonderful people. If I was ready to start using it on a regular basis, I would go ahead and buy the Dewar, and everything else needed to be able to HT it myself. I feel like it's important to control all aspects of the process, if something were to go wrong, then I would have a better chance of figuring out what went wrong.
I'm not sure at this point if I will ever use the CPM's or the other high end steels.
I LOVE Aldo's 1084, I want to be able to master 1084, to the degree that I know as much as can be known about that one steel, it is cheap (OK, affordable) enough, that when (NOT IF) I make a mistake, it doesn't break the bank AND with a little extra attention it makes an incredible blade. Strong, sharp, tough, whatelse do we need a steel to do? I have seen many 1084 blades do everything required fo rthe ABS Journeyman test.
The only reason I can see and one of the reasons I bought the
ATS-34, is to be able to offer a Stainless Steel to those customers that have to have Stainless steel, not to mention, some knives should be made with Stainless, because some folks will not take care of a knife......., until they really PAY for one!
I lucked up on this steel, another knifemaker I know was cleaning out his stock, and had these 2 pieces, I was buying some horn material from him and he threw the ATS-34 in and gave me a price on the lot, he picked it up from an estate sale of a Knifemaker that passed away. So he got it really cheap and basically gave it to me to sweeten the pot.
I don't normally make several knives that are the same pattern at the same time, with these being for the most important women in my life, I decided these will be a Santoku pattern, that I basically drew up myself, I've made one so far, and it turned out very well, it was the thinnest steel I've ever used, and the edge on it was INCREDIBLE!!!! Scary sharpest knife I ever made, and it was made with the 1st steel I ever bought, it came from Admiral, <note the shame in voice>, I got this before I knew better, but it did turn out better than fine. Whe I was testing the edge, I started by cutting notebook paper, then went to newspaper, then got a little crazier and picked up some cigarette paper, never thought I'd be buying that, much less for testing and edge, it cut curls on it as well! The customer actually told me it was too sharp!<?>!
OK I'm on a tangent, I'll get back to y'all when I get them done, I'm going to attempt to do it secretly, my wife will know her Mom and my Mom will be getting one, but not her, she'll just think I didn't have enough steel for her one, sneaky joker that I am!
Thanks guys for the help, I didn't think about the dry ice, cold treatment, and seriously thought it HAD to be Cryo'd, I'm understanding it will not reach it's full potential if it isn't Cryo'd, which I think is what y'all are saying, for it to reach it's maximum abilities the Cryo is a neccesity, it'll still make a fine blade without it, just better with it, Got It! Thanks again, Rex
BTW, can it be put in the dishwasher? My high carbon blades are not dishwasher safe, I was curious if these are a no no, too. I would say not, but I'm not sure, Thanks! 1 more time, Rex