Nicholson file knife advice

[JDeere7296]

Hello Guys! Couple quick questions, I came across some older Nicholson files and I wanted to take a couple and make some bushcraft knives. I've searched for tutorials and I've found a few but wanted to know if you guys knew of a good write up or advice for annealing, shaping, & finally heat treating the steel. I have a home made forge but no way to gauge temp. Is it possible to get a good heat treat with no gauge? From what I read, these old files were usually 1095.

Thanks and any advice is greatly appreciated!!

Andy

 

[PT Doc]

A google search on file knife will get you plenty of hits on various knife forums. There are some good ones and some lousy ones. Look for tips from experienced members and pay close attention to the heat treating recommendations. I think that there might be a general consensus on the steel used in the Nicholson file but without going much further, you already have a major unknown. Good luck.

 

[JDeere7296]

A google search on file knife will get you plenty of hits on various knife forums. There are some good ones and some lousy ones. Look for tips from experienced members and pay close attention to the heat treating recommendations. I think that there might be a general consensus on the steel used in the Nicholson file but without going much further, you already have a major unknown. Good luck.

I did a google search and read some articles, just as you pointed out there are a lot of them. That's kinda why I was posting here, to see if there was a consensus on the method as there are varying techniques people used.

 

[N.N]

i finished one not long ago, a knife, not a tutorial. I followed the basic plan - heat it to non-magnetic using a good magnet opposed to a thermometer, charcoal and a hair dryer, drop it back in the fire, throw a bunch of wood on top of it and let it burn out over the course of 4 or 5 hours, find a way to straighten it (although the nicholson warped less than other unknown files), it shaped and ground just fine, reheat to non-magnetic and quench in vegetable oil, temper twice at 450ish degrees.

Mine was hard enough after the tempering that I couldn't drill through it with a cobalt bit by hand. It was actually so hard that I didn't have the easiest time getting a good razor edge on it. But finally the 1x30 120 grit ceramic belt, arkansas stones, ceramic rod and stropping got it there. I'm pretty new to it as well, but it seemed to work for me. If I do it again, I'll probably raise the second temper temp a little.

 

[GHEzell]

Basically, treat it as 1095 with an excess of carbon... expect it to need a higher temper than 1095 regularly needs to account for that extra carbon content. I'd suggest a sub-critical anneal instead of a full anneal in order to keep the grain size ideal (think of it as tempering at 1400 degrees, it softens the steel enough to drill relatively easily without any chance of grain growth associated with higher temps). You need to get it hotter than just non-magnetic by about 100 degrees, and a good 5-15 minute soak would be ideal (but not always possible). Quench in brine, or fast hot oil if yer a sissy... (I'm a sissy, and have parks#50)