ideas for a small shop

the furnace is gas fired, can you imagine the bill? what we do is simple. steel heat treat is just applied science. If you are doing basic high carbon steel like 52100 or 1095 or tool steel like O1 or A2, there is 60+ years of experience to draw on. about all that has changed is furnace automation. I love big machines and miss working on them. at the office there were 3 1600 ton reciprocating presses that forged up to 30 4 pound axle parts a minute.
 
If you are doing basic high carbon steel like 52100 or 1095 or tool steel like O1 or A2, there is 60+ years of experience to draw on.
That is exactly why I began with O-1...then moved to A2....BUT...I am ready to start with AEB-L early next year(just got some in the mail!)....because it may have been you on the hypefree forum that said something like..."You have to consider that after all the work heat treating A2...you still have a blade that can rust...." Lol. I decided that I really do not want to explain knife care to much to the younger generation. Us "older" guys grew up in a non-stainless world.


When I was just out of trade school a friends dad tried to hire me as an apprentice die-maker. The work was super interesting...complex progressive dies were their specialty. He had the stamping house on the same slab as the die-making shop...huge building. As we toured the facility the vibrations from the big presses were going through my body...boom...boom...boom...muted by good insulation but there nonetheless. I declined the job and He was not offended after I told him why...I was a nervous wreck after 45 min of those low tone harmonics.

went to a tool & gage making shop instead...only thing to worry about there was not finish grinding a tool when the train went by...lol.
 
It was Roman Landes who made the A2 comment after a maker had explained his complex A2 HT procedure. several months ago on BF, another person was crowing about how good A2 was, again after a lengthy HT. I commented that no matter how you did your HT, you still ended up with a high carbon blade that would rust. second comment was if he had a A2 blade and I had a O1 blade both ready for HT, by the time his HT was done, the O1 knife could be completed and in the mail.
 
I'm going to try the AEBL next year as well. But I like high carbon steel knives and the patina as they are aged and cared for.
 
Hey Scot, we still need to get together ....maybe after Christmas? I'd love to pick up some knife making tips from you. :)
 
Scott...one thing I have noticed is that the A2 rusts way less easy than the o-1. A polished A2 blade almost acts like stainless...(Almost). I have been wiping blades since I was little so maybe I am doing it to my test blades without realizing it...lol. Thanks dad...
 
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