File knife

[ELH11480]

Anyone have the steps I should take in order to make a file knife? What is the preferred quench oil? Thanks

 

[Johan Nel]

I assume you are referring to using an old file as material to build a knife?
YouTube has a number of videos on building such knives. There is a gentleman on Instagram, r.w.fred that does most of his knives from old files. You may be able to give you some valuable information.
In regards to the most suitable quenching oil, that will be difficult to answer unless the steel of which the file is made from is known.
Hope that helps.

 

[ELH11480]

I assume you are referring to using an old file as material to build a knife?
YouTube has a number of videos on building such knives. There is a gentleman on Instagram, r.w.fred that does most of his knives from old files. You may be able to give you some valuable information.
In regards to the most suitable quenching oil, that will be difficult to answer unless the steel of which the file is made from is known.
Hope that helps.

Thanks, I’ve watched some videos on how to make knives from old files, but I haven’t quite found out the oil that is used to quench in.

 

[Smallshop]

One thing to be careful with is there is "old" and then old....meaning a truly old file will have enough carbon in it to heat treat. Wheras the file makers have learned how to use lower quality steel and case harden it to get the necessary carbon...but doesn't go through. So a recently made worn out file may be a waste of time. I do not know when the construction of files changed...

I do not make file knives...I heard this info here and on FB by other knife makers...

 

[Doug Lester]

You could try getting a high speed quenching oil, such as Parks 50, which will run you about $225-$250 for a five gallon can, or if that's too rich for you right now you could always try very warm brine solution. Stick the blade in the quench tank or about eight to ten seconds while moving it up and down to break up the vapor jacket. Then remove until cool. That way the steel of the blade will move from just under the martensite start line and move slowly to the martensite finish, also listed as martensite 90% line. This will lessen the stress formed in the steel if it were completely cooled in the brine. Just be aware that you will have more quenching failures (read broken blades) with brine than you will have with a high speed oil.

As Ted stated, it will also depend on what you start out with. An older file, or a high quality newer one, will be out of something like 1095, W1, or W2 will harden. Cheap files won't have enough carbon in them to form enough martensite to produce a hard blade.