Custom knife for a friend

[bigelow]

1095 steel
Walnut handle


Camp knife hybrid. I did my best and think it turned out great.

 

[Anvil Head]

Not bad BL. The better pin placement made a diff. He ought to be happy with that one. Tell him it needs a little blood on it to get the patina just right.

 

[deathwish]

i am wanting to use a few pieces of 1095 will be doing only stock removal. can someone please give me a heads up on the proper heat treating.

 

[Anvil Head]

Depends on your setup. 1095 is not as easy to HT correctly as many would have you believe. It's great knife steel, but is finicky about being overheated and/or hit "cold". If your forge can be regulated temp wise with some accuracy you can probably do ok, but you have to know pretty close or you'll wreck the steel. 1095 usually only gives you one shot to get it right - no do overs.
It's a hypereutectoid steel so needs a fast quench medium like Parks 50. Warmed canola (at 120 deg), will only give you so so results, it's just a little too slow.

To get reasonably good results with this steel you will need to normalize properly before actually doing a hardening quench. Here is a clip from Kevin Cashen's tutorial about normalizing 1095.

>1095 is a hypereutectoid steel, which means that any carbon in excess of roughly around .8% will create leftover iron carbide (pro-eutectoid cementite). How you cool above “critical” will determine the form that this carbide will take. It is the “slow cool” that is the problem here or, more specifically, the slow cool from full solution. It is for these reasons that 1095 is normally a bit more of a challenge as a first steel choice.
When slow cooled from full solution, i.e. above “critical”, the extra .1% carbon will come out of solution on carb##e sheets and form networks in the grain boundaries. This will make drilling all but impossible and will also embrittle the steel, as well as lead to unstable edge retention due to microchipping. Thus, it is very important that you do not slow cool from full solution for annealing, air cooling in normalizing is all right but any slower is bad.
Normalize to dissolve the carbide sheets and then subcritical anneal. Heat to around 1300°F, but no hotter, and simply air cool. This will ball up the carb##e, rather than creating lamellar sheeting, making it more manageable and easier to cut.<
Just a note: Kevin knows his stuff from the atom up to the raw steel. Highly respected in the knife maker's world.

As far as the actual hardening and tempering temps and soak times - google will get you enough conflicting data to blow your mind. The simplest method is, after normalizing, sprinkle a little rock salt on the blade before placing in the forge. When it begins to melt on the blade, pay very close attention to the color of the steel where it melts. The whole blade needs to be that color but NOT brighter. Then quench, have your quench close as you only have a few seconds with this steel before it cools below the target temp (not good). Practice your steps a few times before the actual quenching. Draw the temper at 400 deg. for 2 hours, let cool, then do a second draw at 415 deg. Should be ready to finish from there.

 

[deathwish]

Depends on your setup. 1095 is not as easy to HT correctly as many would have you believe. It's great knife steel, but is finicky about being overheated and/or hit "cold". If your forge can be regulated temp wise with some accuracy you can probably do ok, but you have to know pretty close or you'll wreck the steel. 1095 usually only gives you one shot to get it right - no do overs.
It's a hypereutectoid steel so needs a fast quench medium like Parks 50. Warmed canola (at 120 deg), will only give you so so results, it's just a little too slow.

To get reasonably good results with this steel you will need to normalize properly before actually doing a hardening quench. Here is a clip from Kevin Cashen's tutorial about normalizing 1095.

>1095 is a hypereutectoid steel, which means that any carbon in excess of roughly around .8% will create leftover iron carbide (pro-eutectoid cementite). How you cool above “critical” will determine the form that this carbide will take. It is the “slow cool” that is the problem here or, more specifically, the slow cool from full solution. It is for these reasons that 1095 is normally a bit more of a challenge as a first steel choice.
When slow cooled from full solution, i.e. above “critical”, the extra .1% carbon will come out of solution on carb##e sheets and form networks in the grain boundaries. This will make drilling all but impossible and will also embrittle the steel, as well as lead to unstable edge retention due to microchipping. Thus, it is very important that you do not slow cool from full solution for annealing, air cooling in normalizing is all right but any slower is bad.
Normalize to dissolve the carbide sheets and then subcritical anneal. Heat to around 1300°F, but no hotter, and simply air cool. This will ball up the carb##e, rather than creating lamellar sheeting, making it more manageable and easier to cut.<
Just a note: Kevin knows his stuff from the atom up to the raw steel. Highly respected in the knife maker's world.

As far as the actual hardening and tempering temps and soak times - google will get you enough conflicting data to blow your mind. The simplest method is, after normalizing, sprinkle a little rock salt on the blade before placing in the forge. When it begins to melt on the blade, pay very close attention to the color of the steel where it melts. The whole blade needs to be that color but NOT brighter. Then quench, have your quench close as you only have a few seconds with this steel before it cools below the target temp (not good). Practice your steps a few times before the actual quenching. Draw the temper at 400 deg. for 2 hours, let cool, then do a second draw at 415 deg. Should be ready to finish from there.

I will be using a furnace, I have already got my flat grind completed. So now I normalize for 1300 deg. how long of a soak? After normalization let air cool, let completely cool? Is this normalization only one cycle? When normalization is completed at what temp. is necessary for good heat treatment, and how long of a soak. I will have Parks 50 with a temp of 120 in a 22 inch piece of a 4" x 4" tubing for quench. How long on a quench should it take.

Depends on your setup. 1095 is not as easy to HT correctly as many would have you believe. It's great knife steel, but is finicky about being overheated and/or hit "cold". If your forge can be regulated temp wise with some accuracy you can probably do ok, but you have to know pretty close or you'll wreck the steel. 1095 usually only gives you one shot to get it right - no do overs.
It's a hypereutectoid steel so needs a fast quench medium like Parks 50. Warmed canola (at 120 deg), will only give you so so results, it's just a little too slow.

To get reasonably good results with this steel you will need to normalize properly before actually doing a hardening quench. Here is a clip from Kevin Cashen's tutorial about normalizing 1095.

>1095 is a hypereutectoid steel, which means that any carbon in excess of roughly around .8% will create leftover iron carbide (pro-eutectoid cementite). How you cool above “critical” will determine the form that this carbide will take. It is the “slow cool” that is the problem here or, more specifically, the slow cool from full solution. It is for these reasons that 1095 is normally a bit more of a challenge as a first steel choice.
When slow cooled from full solution, i.e. above “critical”, the extra .1% carbon will come out of solution on carb##e sheets and form networks in the grain boundaries. This will make drilling all but impossible and will also embrittle the steel, as well as lead to unstable edge retention due to microchipping. Thus, it is very important that you do not slow cool from full solution for annealing, air cooling in normalizing is all right but any slower is bad.
Normalize to dissolve the carbide sheets and then subcritical anneal. Heat to around 1300°F, but no hotter, and simply air cool. This will ball up the carb##e, rather than creating lamellar sheeting, making it more manageable and easier to cut.<
Just a note: Kevin knows his stuff from the atom up to the raw steel. Highly respected in the knife maker's world.

As far as the actual hardening and tempering temps and soak times - google will get you enough conflicting data to blow your mind. The simplest method is, after normalizing, sprinkle a little rock salt on the blade before placing in the forge. When it begins to melt on the blade, pay very close attention to the color of the steel where it melts. The whole blade needs to be that color but NOT brighter. Then quench, have your quench close as you only have a few seconds with this steel before it cools below the target temp (not good). Practice your steps a few times before the actual quenching. Draw the temper at 400 deg. for 2 hours, let cool, then do a second draw at 415 deg. Should be ready to finish from there.

t what temp should I do my heat treatment and how long of a soak? I will be quenching in parks 50 at an oil temp of 120 in a 22", 4" x 4" piece of tubing. How long should I quench the knife.

 

[Anvil Head]

Parks 50 does not need to be heated, performs best at room temp. The 120 temp is where canola oil performs best (not Parks).

Normalizing is a three step process not one. 1-at critical temp for steel 2-at 1300 3-1100, each step is air cooled with an air source such as a compressor or strong fan.

Off top of my head 1475 is hardening heat for 1095. I use a forge so I go by descelessense (homogeneous colorization through out the blade, but no hot or cold spots). Time of soak in a furnace will depend on geometry and mass.

Keep blade in quench long enough to cool down to touchable, again this will depend on geometry and mass.

I get these kinds of questions all the time from beginning knife makers. Seriously, like making an personal aircraft, it's better to read and research before assembly and test flight.
There is a lot more physics, chemistry, and geometry to making a knife properly than meets the eye.

 

[deathwish]

Parks 50 does not need to be heated, performs best at room temp. The 120 temp is where canola oil performs best (not Parks).

Normalizing is a three step process not one. 1-at critical temp for steel 2-at 1300 3-1100, each step is air cooled with an air source such as a compressor or strong fan.

Off top of my head 1475 is hardening heat for 1095. I use a forge so I go by descelessense (homogeneous colorization through out the blade, but no hot or cold spots). Time of soak in a furnace will depend on geometry and mass.

Keep blade in quench long enough to cool down to touchable, again this will depend on geometry and mass.

I get these kinds of questions all the time from beginning knife makers. Seriously, like making an personal aircraft, it's better to read and research before assembly and test flight.
There is a lot more physics, chemistry, and geometry to making a knife properly than meets the eye.

Thanks

 

[dixiecutter]

Looks good Bigs

 

[bigelow]

Great advice anvil. I am
Pretty sure 1095 is all I can do. My 1084 failed miserably.

 

[redeli]

I like it

 

[Anvil Head]

Great advice anvil. I am
Pretty sure 1095 is all I can do. My 1084 failed miserably.

Need to get together sometime and work through that. 1084 is the simplest and most forgiving of the decent blade steels. Be glad to help you work out the kinks.

 

[godogs57]

You did just fine. Much better than my first!