My Knife

Whit

Whit

Joined
Dec 27, 2001
Messages
729
I finally decided to make myself a knife. I'm tired of people saying "you make knives? Do you have one I can see?" I feel pretty dumb saying no! So I made myself a small knife that I can carry most anywhere. It was my first time working with 52100 (Thanks to Tony last weekend at Trackrock). I think the heat might have gotten a little high in tempering, because the edge holding isn't quite what I expected. I guess I'll have to refine that process a little before I make any more. Anyways, the blade is forged from 52100, about a 3 inch blade, 320 satin finish, handle is Mopane.
 
looks good from what I can see. Go get a picture outside under in the shadows :)
Looks like a nice user shape :)
Brian
 
Hey, that looks darn good!

how did you temper it? Kitchen oven? toaster oven? IG's relish?

Sometimes the temperature controllers on those ovens are way off. I know that my oven, set at 415 degree's will cycle as high at 510 degrees!

Tony
 
I tempered it in a toaster oven. I have two thermometers in there, and I tried for 425. Obviously I don't watch them constantly, so I don't know how much it fluctuates when I'm not looking. Any ideas on how to get a more consistant heat?
 
it's a hard one, toaster ovens tend to be better about the cycling than range ovens, or at least have been in my experience. another thing about the 52100 is, sometimes it won't reach full hardness if it's quenched from too low a temperature, it's not like the 10xx steels, and needs a little more heat to get everything in solution, and does need a good soak at temperature. I usually soak for about 15 minutes at "just non magnetic" then bump the heat up a bit for about 4-5 minutes, then quench. terribly scientific I know :) but it works well for me.

Is that the little thing you worked on friday evening? Made it out of the 9/16 bar right?

Tony
 
Yep, that's the one. You're probably right about the soak time. Not sure how long it was, but certainly not 15 minutes. I'll try that next time. Thanks.
 
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