Heat Treating

I will be heat treating all my knives. Depending on what steel is used, I will follow the recommended guidelines for heat treating the particular steel. These are the heat treat procedures I use for the steel options I offer.

1095 High Carbon Steel

Normalizing:

I do 3 normalizing cycles on the blade before doing the quench.

1. Hold at 1600°F for 10 minutes then take out and cool in still air
2. Hold at 1500°F for 10 minutes then take out and cool in still air
3. Hold at 1400°F for 10 minutes then take out and cool in still air

Hardening:

1. I’ll hold the knife at 1470°F for 8 minutes, then quickly do a fully submerged uninterupted quench in Parks 50 heat treating oil.

Tempering:

1. I do two tempering cycles at 450°F for 1 hour on each cycle. Now she’s ready to be hand finished and handle some business.

W2 Tool Steel

Normalizing:

I do 3 normalizing cycles on the blade before doing the quench.

1. Hold at 1550°F for 10 minutes then take out and cool in still air
2. Hold at 1450°F for 10 minutes then take out and cool in still air
3. Hold at 1350°F for 10 minutes then take out and cool in still air

Hardening:

1. I’ll hold the knife at 1460°F for 8 minutes, then quickly do a fully submerged uninterupted quench in Parks 50 heat treating oil.

Tempering:

1. I do two tempering cycles at 450°F for 1 hour on each cycle. Now she’s tough and ready to go.