Ed Fowler

You are welcome Dan.
I do not know off of the top of my head what the books predict as critical temp for 5160 and 52100. I could walk about 30 feet and pick up a book, look it up and sound official, but so can anyone who wishes to know.

I know what the magnet tells me and it has proven to get the job done as far as revealed by photomicrographs and performance. I do know that all 52100 and 5160 are not the same in chemistry or quality. How these variables influence critical temp I do not know.

Would a salt pot be a better place to heat? I don't know, I suggest you try it, do some comparison testing for blade performance doing what you want your blades to do and report your results.

I will offer one suggestion, you will never know what the potential of a blade is unless you test your experimental blades to destruction. Gather all the information you can from each test and keep records. For example: I use a torque wrench to measure the torque required to flex, bend and break a blade. This little piece of information provided highly significant results.

The more who join in experimenting and testing the greater our opportunity to learn.
 
I feel everyone should make knives the way they want to. :)

Have fun.

Test your knives.

Listen to your customers.

Don't be too concerned with what other makers are doin.

What works for one maker may not work for another.

Like, "Forgin’ blades in women's underwear" :D

It's all good! :cool:
 
I feel this thread should continue, as it the more I read posts to it, the more it reinforces my previous post. It's not that I insist on being right all the time, I just love it when others prove me right.
 
Don Hanson III said:
I feel everyone should make knives the way they want to. :)

Have fun.

Test your knives.

Listen to your customers.

Don't be too concerned with what other makers are doin.

What works for one maker may not work for another.

Like, "Forgin’ blades in women's underwear" :D
Click to expand...

As usual, the fewest words makes the most sense.
Except that last line. If you have pictures, I do NOT want to see them! :eek: :D
 
i have a webbing from my razor blank project in 52100 so dont worry kiln testing will happen ( was tring to find a good use for the extra steel )

while i have destroyed a few 52100 blades with my heat treat not alot of info gleamed from braking razor blade thickness steel

? that i jsut thought of tho was what is the grain size on the non heat treated spine of you blades Ed since the multi quench is for the grain on the edge
 
butcher_block said:
? that i jsut thought of tho was what is the grain size on the non heat treated spine of you blades Ed since the multi quench is for the grain on the edge
Click to expand...

Butch, I just watched Ed's "52100 Wootz" DVD this weekend, and I believe he (or Rex,) says that the spine on one of his knives is a 10 or 11 grain size, with the hardened edge a 14. It's all Greek to me:foot:, I don't know enough to have learned much:eek:, but that's what I remember hearing.
 
Well, what I know about most of this stuff, could be measured, but nobody brought the optics to see that small.

Regardless.

I would like to thank those who soldiered through, and continued to try to ask reasonable questions and to answer reasonable questions.

I have had the experience from time to time, of saying the same thing as someone else, but doing it in a way where the both of us thought we were disagreeing. An exhausting proposition, and I think you all did some of that.

I read the whole thread, and I think I might just read it again, I believe there yet may be some more nuggets to glean.

Thank you all.

Marion
 
Don Hanson III said:
Like, "Forgin’ blades in women's underwear" :D
Click to expand...

I thought it might be a good way for some folks to draw that long over due and much needed attention to their knifemaking... harmless anyway. :)

How's that for marketing strategy?
 
Ed,

I am going to do as you suggest and try using your heat-treating methods.

I will have more procedure questions as this project progresses so I hope you don’t mind if I keep this thread as communication between us as there seem to be a few following this that may be interested.

I plan on making 4 knives out of 52-100, all as close the same as I can. Forge them all at the temperature you suggest, normalize and anneal.

1st set of questions:

· How close to finished dimension do you forge?
· Do you grind to finished blade dimensions?

Because I do not have what I feel is the necessary skill to do my heating with a torch I will use a salt pot to heat the blades for quenching. Here is where I will do 2 blades your way and 2 with my normal heat-treating methods.

2nd set of questions:

· How long do you wait between the 3 heat and quench cycles?
· At what temperature do you draw the blades and for how long?
· Do you draw more than once?

After the knives are finished I will test one of each to destruction. During this test I will keep records of production time and testing procedures and results. This should give me a start to determine if a multiple quench process produces better results and if so at what cost is the gain.

I will post here with progress reports. I admit that I do have doubts that the multiple quenching is superior but you have convinced me that I should not judge the process without actually giving it a fair trial.

Daniel
 
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