C-Flex only without peening handle-please advise-I forgot to drill holes before quench

T

timfish

Joined
Jun 4, 2022
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OK,,,I messed up, as soon as I quenched some 1095 and 5160 chef knives, I realized, Oh CRAP!!! I didnt drill the handle pin holes, I usually peen the 1/4" brass, but I realize there is no drill bit that would work now. I have used CFlex for a bunch of other knives alongside mhy peens, but is CFLEX enough or what should I do--please help!
 
Carbide or anneal only the area around the spot you want to drill, obviously not allowing the blade portion to be annealed. Carbide bit is easier.
 
Draw back the temper in the handle. You want most of that area to be tougher than the blade anyway.
You'll still need a decent HSS drill bit, really cheap ones will struggle
 
The "drill anything" bits I got from Amazon actually do seem to drill through anything. Cheap, too. Put this number in their search bar B09F3848VS
As Butch said, these will likely drill an oversize hole, so start smaller than your rod and grind the rod to fit the hole size.
 
timfish said:
Thank you
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With carbide drills you want high speed, I use a bit of coolant, or liquid dish soap, or whatever to help cool and lube the drill..... also you don't really want to dwell too much while drilling, but you want a strong feed.
Carbide is brittle so you don't want your piece to move or chatter or you will break your bit.

Because of that, I also recommend cheap masonry carbide tipped drills. Even still, you may have to resharpen them on your belt grinder with ceramic belts.... Good Luck.

I drill lots of powerhacksaw blades. They are HSS, usually M2 that is Crazy Hard. 64-66HRC.

you Can do this!!!!!!
 
If you have a TIG welder( or a friend who has one ) just pick the spots you want the holes and light up on them for a second or three and let it cool off slowly. It'll spot anneal it plenty for a twist drill and reamer, so you have nice on size holes.
 
Just to add my 2 cents with Butch and Crag. Cheapo carbid tipped masonry bits will do the job. The hole will be slightly oversized. I was told to run them fast and without any lubricant, so that's what I have been doing, and you can get a hole drilled in hardened steel with those cheap masonry bits in no time. Running fast with no lubricant sort of "spot anneals" the tang, and the bit will eventually go right through.

You can anneal the tang by heating it up to red hot and let it cool slowly by sticking into a bucket of sand, ash, vermiculite, etc. Use regular bits afterwards.

You can buy a solid carbide bit and be careful with them, use lubricant. I just purchased a #21 and a #30 myself just this week. My bandsaw blade broke, and I was out of hacksaw blades in 18tpi. I cut the bandsaw using the edge of my ceramic belt on the grinder, and drilled holes on each end with the carbide bits. Now I have 3 fairly new blades for my hacksaw!
 
ak650 said:
If you have a TIG welder( or a friend who has one ) just pick the spots you want the holes and light up on them for a second or three and let it cool off slowly. It'll spot anneal it plenty for a twist drill and reamer, so you have nice on size holes.
Click to expand...
that's actually a pretty interesting idea
 
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