Can i buy steel ready to grind with out heat treating it after

B

benchmadebob

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May 12, 2008
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I want to make my own knives i have all the tools needed and i dont know what steel to use i want a good carbon or tool steel. That i can just cut out and grind and the slap some handles on and i wont have to heat treat it is there any steel like that?
 
I don't know if there is a steel that will hold up if not heat-treated. I would think the edge would be worthless. Heating and tempering gives steel its strength. If you purchased steel that was already heat-treated then it would be very difficult to grind and re-heating it during the grinding process can have ill effects as well.

I'm not sure about stellite or titanium
 
There are kit knives that are already heat-treated, shaped and contoured, but not sharpened, that you can sharpen yourself. The caveat is you should do it by hand, because the heat from high speed friction will ruin said heat treat.
 
I'm not a knifemaker, just a collector, but my 2 cents is:

If you got hardened bar stock it would be a horrible pain in the ass to grind. Can you imagine doing all that stock removal on 57 or 58 R stock?

Further, working the steel generates heat. So as you are grinding away at the edge you'll end up ruining the heat treat anyway.

Might as well buy soft, have a much easier time working it, mail it off to be hardened, then put on your handle. Then post your work on the forum!
 
Someone told me that Talonite does not need to be heat treated. Whether this is true, I have not bothered to verify.
 
Actually, there is one way you could do it as long as you aren't in a real hurry and you only want to make one or two. If you hunt around you can find power hacksaw blades that are made of all hard M2 high speed steel. They are big enough to make a good size knife from, and they are at somewhere between 62-65 in hardness. They are slow to grind because they are so hard, but because they are HSS you can get them pretty hot without worrying about loosing temper.

I have a Loveless copy drop point that I ground from a power hacksaw blade that is my hunting knife---edge retention on a blade that hard is amazing!


The other option is to buy annealed 1095 from a knife supplier, grind to shape, then heat with charcoal to orange and quench in water or used motor oil. I've done both. Both made good knives, but I think the hacksaw blade is a better option if you just want to make one knife.

Remember, it needs to be all hard HSS, not bimetal. Bimetal blades just have the hardened stuff on the edge---but you could make a sheepsfoot blade with one.
 
carrot said:
Someone told me that Talonite does not need to be heat treated. Whether this is true, I have not bothered to verify.
Click to expand...

It is true, but Talonite is very expensive, and I'm not sure there is a source for small quantities now that Rob Simonich has passed away.

Plus, all of that cobalt makes it really scary stuff to breathe the dust of. You need serious ventilation and respiration if you want to grind cobalt alloys.
 
Either send it out for heat treating to someone such as Paul Bos or buy a heat treating furnace (such as Paragon or Even-Heat). Don't waste your time looking for something that doesn't have to be heat treated.
 
Get a hold of some flat O-1 stock and cut out your blade shape. It should come annealed and ready to work. For my first blades I did the heat treat in my backyard. In most cases you will not be able to cut knife blanks out of heat treated steel. That is why you do the majority of your work (filing, grinding, drilling holes etc.) BEFORE you heat treat it, while it is still soft.
 
Moving from General Knife to Shop Talk ... benchmadebob, please post your knifemaking questions in Shop Talk from now on.l
 
There are quite a few makers that do the rough blade profile, then harden and grind the bevels in. This works out well for thin/tight tolerance folder blades as it prevents warping and dimension changes from screwing with tolerances after heat treating. They all really know what they're doing though, and are very careful to use sharp belts with relatively low belt speeds to prevent overheating. Most are better off just buying annealed steel stock, send them out for heat treating after grinding.
 
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