Cable Damascus Tutorial part 5: Heat Treating

[evcrawfish]

at the end of this video you talk about doing something to the spine of the blade, have you done a video or explained this process somewhere else? i am very new to knife work and i want to learn the correct way of doing things.

thank you very much for taking the time to post this series, it has been a huge help

[ArtistBlade1972]

@evcrawfish Watch my video of heat treating the Khopesh sword, that should make things clear. :) You're very welcome for the videos, glad you're getting something out of em. Thanks for watching.

[evcrawfish]

@ArtistBlade1972 cool, yes sir, i just finished making (well kind of) my first ever knife. and i've been studying sugarcreekforge's channel, as well as gavkoo and several other guys who are doing blacksmithing and knife making. picking up pieces here and there. i gathered some stuff from my junk pile today to start assembling my first charcoal forge, gas is planned down the road. anyway, i am going through and watching all of your vids.

[ArtistBlade1972]

@evcrawfish Alright brother if I can help ya in any way let me know.

[rcmoot]

how long are you waiting before you temper ?

[rcmoot]

quench more than once . what oil are you using?

[rcmoot]

too small of pan to quench.

[rcmoot]

should have been testing with magnet , instead of just judging colors

[ArtistBlade1972]

@rcmoot A magnet isn't nearly as accurate as looking for the point of decalescence/recalescence. The curie point marks the lower transformation temp. This is only the correct quench temp for 1084, which this is not. I never multiple quench simple steels, only low and medium chromium alloys. Thanks for watching...

[rcmoot]

should have preheated the steel first before sticking straight in.

[m579064]

i thought this was a damascus blade.. wheres the pattern??

[ArtistBlade1972]

@m579064 You won't see the pattern until after the blade is etched...

[m579064]

@ArtistBlade1972 lol just watched part 6 cheers man, have a habit of doing that.. keep up the good work!

[m579064]

what kind of wool did u use for the tip?

[m579064]

lol kaowool! i should have waited till id watched before posting

[dordtrecht]

One question for now ... is it proper to lay the blade horizontal, or should it be hung vertically to prevent warp? Does it matter? Oops, I guess that is two questions.

[ArtistBlade1972]

@dordtrecht Are you asking about the actual quench or normalization? It can warp in either process. Most people who quench the entire blade quench point down vertically. People who edge quench do it horizontally. It's tricky to judge temperature when you are first starting out, and overheating will definitely warp a blade. That, along with not properly relieving forging stresses, are the top 2 causes of warps. Hope that answers your question.

[dordtrecht]

@ArtistBlade1972

Thanks for answering my question ... perhaps this will clarify what I am asking ... the answer may be the same. I guess (because I don't know all of the terminology yet) in this video you showed the part of you heating the blade, I guess to normalize it, and then you placed it on the anvil, horizontally flat.

[ArtistBlade1972]

@dordtrecht this increases the ductility of the steel by removing some of the hardness. I hope that is a little more clear...

[dordtrecht]

@ArtistBlade1972

I would be the normalizing process ... where you are hardening the blade by heat and cool three times. Also, if it is proper to lay the blade horizontally flat, do you bring your anvil temp up to black or just leave it at room temp? I like your videos on this blade processing, however, on this particular one it is not clear as to what to precisely do to harden/normalize the blade. Thank you.

[ArtistBlade1972]

@dordtrecht Ok, sorry, I should have been more descriptive. What you are referring to is called thermal cycling. I normalize the blade 3 times. This is to reduce the grain size in the steel structure. Also, this relieves forging stresses. and reduces the chance of warping. This is not the hardening process. When I heat it the final time and quench in oil is when the blade actually hardens. This is followed by a tempering cycle to remove strain cause by martensite transformation.

[WoebringerofDoom]

dude put a stop on the drill press, a bolt or some thing to keep the blade from spinning around. for that one time it slips.

[ArtistBlade1972]

@WoebringerofDoom I can hold it just fine. I've done this hundreds of times. The blade is not even sharp at this point.. Even if it did grab it would smack the bar behind it....

[Pookster47676]

What kind of oil do you use to quench?

[ArtistBlade1972]

@Pookster47676 Depends on the steel type. This particular blade was quenched in a mixture of automatic transmission fluid and paraffin wax. It is a solid at room temperature. I use this for all hypereutectoids. For hypoeutectoids with the exception of 5160 I use very light weight mineral oil.