Heat treating knife rack?

[JG Custom Metal Works]

I think I’m going to start with trying to just make new rods out of stainless rod for the one ceramic homer I have already. I don’t see why I would need two holders for something shorter than 7.5 inches or so. I just think it would be harder to try and weave multiple blades through both of them, and remove them when they are ready to quench.

FYI The long reach locking pliers from Harbor Freight work real well for grabbing blades out of the wracks for quench. I do one at a time and shut the door real quick as soon as I get the blade out. Then I put the blade in between the quench plates on the ground, stand on them, close the oven door if it is still open a tiny bit, and then latch it. After the door is closed and latched I’ll put my hands on the ceiling and push to put more downward pressure on the blade between the quench plates. Might sound a little screwy, but it works. The main thing I posted for though is to let you know about the vise grips. These are what I’m talking about:

https://www.harborfreight.com/15-inch-long-reach-locking-pliers-97609.html

 

[Kevin McGovern]

FYI The long reach locking pliers from Harbor Freight work real well for grabbing blades out of the wracks for quench. I do one at a time and shut the door real quick as soon as I get the blade out. Then I put the blade in between the quench plates on the ground, stand on them, close the oven door if it is still open a tiny bit, and then latch it. After the door is closed and latched I’ll put my hands on the ceiling and push to put more downward pressure on the blade between the quench plates. Might sound a little screwy, but it works. The main thing I posted for though is to let you know about the vise grips. These are what I’m talking about:

https://www.harborfreight.com/15-inch-long-reach-locking-pliers-97609.html

I used to stand on them. do yourself a favor and buy a HF bench vice- https://www.harborfreight.com/6-inch-portable-carpenters-vise-95203.html screw the plates to the vice jaws (they have holes for this already) and you can clamp that blade with the authority that tells it,"Hey blade, I'm not messing around!". They can be clamped on and off the bench easily. I bolted a piece of angle on the edge of the bench with one leg of the angle vertical so I could orient the vice jaws so the blade is parallel to the floor.

 

[Theforerunner]

Those

I used to stand on them. do yourself a favor and buy a HF bench vice- https://www.harborfreight.com/6-inch-portable-carpenters-vise-95203.html screw the plates to the vice jaws (they have holes for this already) and you can clamp that blade with the authority that tells it,"Hey blade, I'm not messing around!". They can be clamped on and off the bench easily. I bolted a piece of angle on the edge of the bench with one leg of the angle vertical so I could orient the vice jaws so the blade is parallel to the floor.

Those pliers look useful. I thought about just buying some premade blacksmith tongs as ive been using channel locks with my gas forge. The ultimate goal is to find myself an anvil I can actually afford and start forging. I want to make hatchets and hammers and stuff and my own tongs. Basically want to be able to make anything I need myself.

 

[JG Custom Metal Works]

I used to stand on them. do yourself a favor and buy a HF bench vice- https://www.harborfreight.com/6-inch-portable-carpenters-vise-95203.html screw the plates to the vice jaws (they have holes for this already) and you can clamp that blade with the authority that tells it,"Hey blade, I'm not messing around!". They can be clamped on and off the bench easily. I bolted a piece of angle on the edge of the bench with one leg of the angle vertical so I could orient the vice jaws so the blade is parallel to the floor.

Not quite sure I’m understanding how you use this. Do you use two of them? Because it looks like it would only clamp on one edge of the plates and you’d need a second one on the other side.

If you could post a pic it’d be awesome. I thought about making a book press type rig.

 

[Kevin McGovern]

Not quite sure I’m understanding how you use this. Do you use two of them? Because it looks like it would only clamp on one edge of the plates and you’d need a second one on the other side.

If you could post a pic it’d be awesome. I thought about making a book press type rig.

no, just one will do it. I even have a 8" wide by 14" long set I use. The vise exerts more force than your weight, and the plates aren't going to bend, so clamping from one edge will still clamp them flat together. This shows my set up.

 

[JG Custom Metal Works]

no, just one will do it. I even have a 8" wide by 14" long set I use. The vise exerts more force than your weight, and the plates aren't going to bend, so clamping from one edge will still clamp them flat together. This shows my set up.

Awesome! Thanks a bunch for taking the time to do that. I appreciate it.

Do you worry about not getting the plates tightened on the knives quick enough? I was under the impression that you really wanted to get blades into the quench(in between the plates) ASAP. Of course that might just be my mindset coming from doing oil quenched steels...

 

[JTknives]

Quench plate steel can just be air cooled. We use quench plates to keep the thin blades stright as thy cool. But like I said you could pull the knife out and cut open the foil and hang the knife on a wire and let air cool. It will fully harden and be fine. You might have a bit of scale to deal with. But when you use quench plates you toss everything between the plates.