Recent content by Kentucky

two things that helped me out was * Less heat- use the lowest aust temp you can for your steel. I go down to 1450° for W2 and W1 * Less Clay- use a thin layer, you don't need that gobbed up thick layr of clay. It should be thin..with practice you can practically draw on the blade with your...

We use our coal forge more but its more for general blacksmithing which is most of what we do..For general blacksmithing I like it many more times than propane because the fire is shapeable and your able to concentrate it to small areas were you need it. Not to mention welding in. Mild steel and...

DMT are great sharpeners and good products..They make some of the best portable sharpeners around

Ill throw in a plug for the Esteem grinder..Ive used about all the big name grinder except the TW-90 which I know is an outstanding machine and pretty much top dog these days. Ive used KMG's which are a good grinder,Wiltons,cootes,industrial grinders etc..For the money its hard to beat an...

We use close to the same heat treat..I use about 1460° for the W2(Ive had great luck with 1475° as well) with a 3-4 minute soak..We use Kevin Cashens heat treat for 52100 and could not be happier with it..Id say you will have to go close to 450° tempers to get around 60rc if that's what your...

That's my understanding as well..I really like the steel. My personal carry knife is AEB-L heat treated to about 61rc..I cut up fish all the time and have no problems with chipping.

A dry ice/acetone bath will get cold enough to take care of the RA..I measured our last batch at -106°..I isn't cold enough for "true" cryo but you will generally get the same RC gains from the RA reduction as you do with LN from what Ive seen. Just not the cryo's eta carbide" formation..

Now farrier rasps are considered a consumable. They don't have to be that hard really. A few are still made from quality steel, many are not. I saw the specs on one new brand and they were made from .38% carbon steel.

Ive been going over crucibles data..It seems there are several different ways to "quench" this steel. Air, positive pressure,salt or even interrupted oil...It looks like a austnizing temp of abut 2100° with a 1000° temper is suppose to yield a 63rc...Has anyone been heat treating this with...

How much are they going to run?

Ive had that happen with L6 san mai..The exact same thing..The core steel itself split in two..Ive sued a lot of wrought and 1095/1084 with no problems..the only time I ran into problems was with a higher alloy steel..Ive done all kinds of file steel(1.28% carbon) wrought/mild steel san mai in...

Probably the best idea but Ive never had a dramatic warp to correct..If they were ever bad enough to fear breaking I usally normalized a few times and started over but those have been far and few between.

Thanks, what about the cryo? being the alloy it is, would a sub zero quench be a satisfactory substitute?

They are full hard.Temp controlled heat treat quenched in parks 50...I learned this method of straightning from Rick Marchand(sp?) Its not a dramatic bend, only slightly..

Ive been researching cmp 3v a lot lately and have come up with several heat treat reipes..Mainly two..Seems that some like the high aust. temp and high temper of *roughly 975*-1000* and some like a lower aust. temp with cryo and lower tempering of about *400..Id like to hear your thoughts on...