Are Mora tangs already annealed?

J

Joseph

Active Member
Will be peening the the tang of a Mora laminated steel blade pretty soon and am wondering if they are soft enough as-is or if it should be annealed?
 
I am not a expert on the premade Mora blades but my guess would be that the tangs are annealed.
You can always give it a few taps with a hammer on the side and see how the steel moves? If not, to play it safe put wet clay around the blade and just heat up about 3/4" of the tang up to cherry red and and let it cool slowly in sand or vemiculite.

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
The heat sink that I use for drawing a tang so that I can drill it is to stick it in a can of wet sand before heating the tang with a torch. Of course you can just get a carbide bit and drill slowly.

Doug
 
Thanks guys.

Can one over-anneal? (i.e. if it is already annealed and I do it again?)


The tang is only about 1/8" x 1/8" x 1".
 
You can over draw the temper but annealed is pretty much annealed. With the tang that short I think that I would be more comfortable with getting a carbide bit and not change the temper. Jantz carries carbide bits. Carbide Connection, Congress Tools, and MSC Direct are other sources. Use a spade bit and keep the speed of your drill low. My feeling is that the tang was hardened and tempered along with the blade. With that short of a tang you will probably need all the strength you can get rather than toughness that comes with a softer steel. In short, the heat treatment given to the tang was meant to work with the short length.

Doug
 
I don't think he's drilling the tang, I think he's just peening the end?

You could probalby just try skating a file off of it, and if it grabs and starts cutting, then you should be ok to peen.
 
I'm sorry, I'm new to this, so my description might not have been 100%, but it isn't the type of blade you drill into, but rather the kind you put a metallic end-cap on and beat the end of the tang into a mushroom (with a ball-peen hammer).

like in "A" and "C" of this picture:
02d0203s2.jpg
 
C looks like the tang has been heated with a torch to anneal but Andrews suggestion of running a file over it will give you a good idea of the hardness of e tang. Take a known HTed steel and put the file to it. It will sing in a high pitch and skate across it. Annealed steel with be filed and have a low pitch.

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
I see what you mean now. You are talking about the short tang extension that is often threaded to screw on a butt cap. That is probably soft and Andrew and Laurence give good advice. If it would be hard, I would heat the end until it shows good color as I would for burning in the tang, checking with a magnet wouldn't hurt, and allow it to cool. Just do enough of the tang to give enough soft steel to peen over.

Doug
 
Thanks again guys!

I just tried the file trick and could see the difference in hardness between the steel at the end of the tang and up near the blade level.

Should be good to go:happy:
 
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