As the title says, I'm wondering how much blade material I should remove before heat treating. I seem to think I recall hearing someone say to not grind the blade to it's final profile, but maybe 3/4 of the way then heat treat and grind to a final finish after heat treating. Is that best practice or should I fully profile the blade before HT?
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How much material to remove before heat treat?
- Thread starter Dynamik1
- Start date
Darrin Sanders
Moderator
On air hardening steels, take them to about .015"-.020" before H/T. I leave oil hardening steels about .025"-.030" before H/T.
On stainless or any other air hardening steel I'll do pretty much as Darrin and into the foil with a 600 grit belt finish. Makes for easier finishing after HT, you can go backwards or forwards in grit for final finish from there. On carbon steels, I've been able to go down to 0.020 with a 320 grit belt finish, provided I use the PBC which is wonderful stuff once you get to figure it out. This gets you to a 400-600 final finish quickly.
I should mention that nothing leaves my shop at less than 800 grit finish, or higher.
Rudy
I should mention that nothing leaves my shop at less than 800 grit finish, or higher.
Rudy
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