OccamsBlade
Jim Dobbler
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2014
- Messages
- 227
Like the title says, my first time normalizing didn't go so well. I've been making knives for a few years now on and off. I've mostly been using 01 and 1084. The first several knives I made with 1095 recently were problem free. However I started making bigger kitchen knives and wanted to try a few 7" kitchen knives (ground down to .02 - .03 on the edge). I figured I'd try to get the best out of my 1095 and did some research. What I found is that a lot of knifemakers suggest normalizing 1095 before hardening, even if you do stock removal. So I gave it a shot.
From the many hours of research I did on the subject I decided I'd do a normalization cycle in my Atlas forge at 1500, 1450, and 1400(x2). After putting all three of my blades through the first cycle at 1500 (trying to heat them evenly until there was no shadow) everything seemed fine. The only odd thing, that I've never had happen before, was when the knives cooled to black they would develop a bright red powdery substance on the surface. Like a fine rust but deeper red. So just wiped it off with my glove and went for the second cycle at 1450. After pulling those out I got the same red stuff, but also noticed some warping. Thinking about it now it could have been something I did. I maybe swung it around too much, or let it sit on a cold surface, or uneven heating, or all of the above.
I put the ones with bad warps in a vice between two steel plates while still warm with no success. Not simple warps but slight S shaped warps. I've never had warps nearly as bad as these. So I guess I've been lucky up until now, haha. What had me beside myself is that it happened during normalization. I thought it was supposed to fix issues with the steel, lol. Anyway, was wondering what the best procedure is at this stage for fixing warps. I was thinking of taking a torch to the spines where the bends are and try to straighten them with a gloved hand in a vise. I did try doing it cold in the vise but thought it might add even more unnecessary stress to the blades and stopped. It did correct it a bit, but with a lot of torquing involved. At this point the blade has hardened a bit, so fixing warps isn't as easy as before. I got slight warping during grinding, even though I quenched every pass or two depending on the grit.
Another odd thing I noticed with this particular 1095 stock was that when I ground the bevels a wood like grain pattern started emerging (image below). Probably not related to the warping or red stuff, but thought I'd point those out anyway. The 2 pieces of 1095 stock were purchased from Jantz. The first one, with no weird stuff going on, was a 3/32 piece of 1095. However, the 1/8 piece of 1095 that I made the current blades from did. Mostly that pattern.
Sorry about the lengthy post, but wanted to make sure I included all relevant info. On a side not I have an Evenheat on order. But wanted to get another batch or two done while waiting 5 to 6 weeks for it to arrive. I think I'll just wait before trying to do normalization cycles again:/
From the many hours of research I did on the subject I decided I'd do a normalization cycle in my Atlas forge at 1500, 1450, and 1400(x2). After putting all three of my blades through the first cycle at 1500 (trying to heat them evenly until there was no shadow) everything seemed fine. The only odd thing, that I've never had happen before, was when the knives cooled to black they would develop a bright red powdery substance on the surface. Like a fine rust but deeper red. So just wiped it off with my glove and went for the second cycle at 1450. After pulling those out I got the same red stuff, but also noticed some warping. Thinking about it now it could have been something I did. I maybe swung it around too much, or let it sit on a cold surface, or uneven heating, or all of the above.
I put the ones with bad warps in a vice between two steel plates while still warm with no success. Not simple warps but slight S shaped warps. I've never had warps nearly as bad as these. So I guess I've been lucky up until now, haha. What had me beside myself is that it happened during normalization. I thought it was supposed to fix issues with the steel, lol. Anyway, was wondering what the best procedure is at this stage for fixing warps. I was thinking of taking a torch to the spines where the bends are and try to straighten them with a gloved hand in a vise. I did try doing it cold in the vise but thought it might add even more unnecessary stress to the blades and stopped. It did correct it a bit, but with a lot of torquing involved. At this point the blade has hardened a bit, so fixing warps isn't as easy as before. I got slight warping during grinding, even though I quenched every pass or two depending on the grit.
Another odd thing I noticed with this particular 1095 stock was that when I ground the bevels a wood like grain pattern started emerging (image below). Probably not related to the warping or red stuff, but thought I'd point those out anyway. The 2 pieces of 1095 stock were purchased from Jantz. The first one, with no weird stuff going on, was a 3/32 piece of 1095. However, the 1/8 piece of 1095 that I made the current blades from did. Mostly that pattern.
Sorry about the lengthy post, but wanted to make sure I included all relevant info. On a side not I have an Evenheat on order. But wanted to get another batch or two done while waiting 5 to 6 weeks for it to arrive. I think I'll just wait before trying to do normalization cycles again:/
