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Truly fast oils are in the 7-10 second range, while medium speed are 11-14 second. Park Metallurgical/Heatbath #50 is 7-10, Park Metallurgical/Heatbath AAA is 11-14 second. The McMaster oil would be more like Houghton quench “G” which is 11-14 second. Houghton makes a type “K” that is...

Historically, the ricasso is a relative newcomer as a blade feature. There are some exceptions, there are always exceptions, but we begin to see widespread use of the ricasso during the renaissance when fighting styles began to favor more accurate thrusting, and fingers started coming around to...

If you clean the black off, without much stock removal, until the blade is just clean and shiny again, you may be able to see the spots still and it could tell you more. If you then give it a quick dip in ferric chloride, decarb will then make itself know much more clearly in the form of...

Some industrial numbers need adjusting a little for knives, others work quite well. What folks need to remember is that they are all good and proven numbers, just not for knives. The trick in sorting it out is to pay attention to what industry uses that steel for. If the steel was created for...

15 minutes is a bit too long. The sheet mentions 5-15, they are probably using a blanket time frame for multiple alloys, I would keep it closer to the 5 minute mark for 10XX series. Whenever you see a temp or time range, the lowest numbers you can get away with are the best options. But that...

Well, in the middle of all this gloomy talk about the sad state of customer service and business practices these days, I suddenly get a reminder that there are some of those truly good guys in business these days. Back in 2010, I found a Michigan business that was making welders and plasma...

I remember doing just that at the Carpenter outlet in Troy, MI, back when it was still open. I would often walk out with arms full of O2 tool steel drops that I bought for pennies on the dollar. But that was a long time ago, and the location ceased to exist over 20 years ago.

Thanks John, that is the sort of thing I was looking for. I may have to plan a visit to your shop when I have a list of steel pieces I need to pick up. It was a lot nicer to jump in the truck and shop whenever I felt like it though.

Yes but the dumb thing is that it is not even a smart business model- a lifetime of satisfied return customers, or a year of two of obscene profit that kills the market. I think of it more as a mindset than a corporation vs. individual thing, because I have seen small business, and even some...

Another example of how all good things must come to an end was my propane supplier. For years I did business with a local Mom and Pop place. They were the kind of place that if a farmer’s finances were tight one month they would say “Hey Ted, we know your good for it, we’ll catch you next...

Actually polishing it and trying to etch will make it harder, unless you have the lab equipment to do it that way. Instead the rough fractured end grain will give you a very good idea based on how the fracture will travel at the grain boundaries. * Good advice, that is often given, is to get...

I guess the real shock value here is that this was the main scrap yard in Lansing MI, they had more leftovers from serious industry than almost anywhere in the world. You wouldn't believe all the really cool items I got there over the years. I used to get 3 phases motors scrapped out of GM...

I am wondering if there are any Michiganders on this forum that know of a scrap yard or business that will sell scrap metal to people? I am not talking about blade steel, I am talking about the structural steel type of stuff that you need when you are building a new forge, a quench tank...

As I said, I have always thought that very hard, and extensive, use in the task the knife was intended for is about the best overall test. I have seen knives chopping cinder blocks or getting driven through car doors and all I could do is laugh, this nonsense doesn’t tell anybody about knife...

For checking heat treatment procedures, or the actual knife?

Not necessarily, but it depends. If your plan is to set a goal for performance at “X” and you get that performance, then you have met your goal with whatever system or test you are working with. If you are at “X” and your goal is to see if you can achieve “Y” and eventually “Z”, then a really...

You have the right start with an all around, general use steel, that is exactly why I did my first DVD about 1080 and 1084. These two steels will make just about any knife with very good results. But now, if you want to explore higher performance in simple carbon steels, you should start...

Normalizing would be an extreme pre-measure just to re-harden. If one had serious concerns about grain size they could do a simple cycle to 1400°F-1475°F range and air cool. if you had concerns about distortion, you could do a stress relieve at 1200°F and the get right to re-hardening.

The crystalline shift from one atomic stacking to another requires extra energy to complete, this is what would be called an “endothermic” transformation in that it pulls heat in. The actual process is indeed known as decalescence. I teach this method of watching the shadows to all of my...

You need to go to at least 1400°F to get any appreciable hardening, and at least 1425°F to get uniform properties. With such basic equipment, I would not hold for any amount of time, I would get it to temp and quench it. Four hours total is a bit much in tempering, a total of 2 hours at...