Straightening an annealed file

H

htony1

Member
After watching the Greenpete video about making a knife, I took some files (old nicholsons) and annealed them in a camp file. They turned out nice and soft but the weight of the firewood on top gave them a sweeping bend. I tried straightening on of them out using my vise but it seems to be impossible to get them straight. I tried searching and it seems to pertain primarily to the heat treating process straightening.

Any suggestions?

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I would recommend hammering it out flat (carefully) then re-heating it, either in another fire making sure the logs don't crush it or with a propane torch.
perhaps there are some local knife makers who have an oven and are willing to let you use it?
 
Thank you fir the reply, I wish I knew a local knife maker willing to talk to me. I would love to watch someone who knew what they were doing. I'll try to straighten it out
 
Get red hot again, then clamp them in the vise to straighten. Hot metal gives, cold will just look back at you. If you beat it cold much all your doing is exercising your arm. Been there, done that too.
 
I've cold hammered probably near a hundred to straight on a vise anvil. You must reheat to stress relieve, and they will likely warp again some in the hardening quench, but there are ways to straighten after hardening and tempering. Although cold hammering cannot be recommended as being good for the steel, I never had a problem from doing it, but it should not be over done.
 
thanks for the help guys, I ended up getting all three pretty straight using the vise, two pieces of angle iron, and some punches spaced accordingly.

Here is the progess so far on the first one, i don't know why i am getting a smiley on the bevel lines but I like the design. The squared but is my attempt to incorporate the Nicholson logo into the knife design.

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I'm glad it turned out well! Nice knife too.

The "smile" is caused by uneven pressure when you file. At the beginning of a file stroke you are using a lot of pressure, then correcting, then evening out at the tip.
Or the file could be wavy and you're filing fine! :biggrin:
 
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