Quality Control

[Vincent Price]

Relatively new maker here.

Primarily been working with 1075 and quenching in Canola oil. I chose this steel because of its perceived forgiveness in the heat treat process. I of course have a bucket started of blades I've abandoned for one reason or another. I am going to put a few of these in a vise and bend/break them to see what they can take and also look at grain structure. What should I expect from them if I have heat treated them properly in a bend test and what should the grain structure look like? To date I have only sold two knives to customers but I have 5 more orders now off of those two knives. I just want to make sure I sending out the best possible product that I am capable of producing.

 

[milkbaby]

If you can find an old file and break it then that's what the grain should look like; homogenous and creamy, not grainy.

 

[Vincent Price]

Thanks. I will try this on a blade or two this weekend and post the results. If I can figure out how to post pictures this time that is.

 

[Vincent Price]

If you can find an old file and break it then that's what the grain should look like; homogenous and creamy, not grainy.

If you can find an old file and break it then that's what the grain should look like; homogenous and creamy, not grainy.

 

[Vincent Price]

Here are the pictures of the test break I did. Not sure what to think. "

" https://imgur.com/gallery/2xkQ2u5 if these pictures dont work then I give up trying to post pictures to this site and quit.

 

[imill3567]

I’m not a veteran maker but to me that looks a little coarse. It’s hard to tell 100% in photos but you want to see a silky grey color.

 

[Josh Rider]

I’m not a veteran maker but to me that looks a little coarse. It’s hard to tell 100% in photos but you want to see a silky grey color.

Agreed
Good for you to break the steel to observe the size of the grain.
I had similar issues with 1075 from NJSB.
I had to soak at 1650° for at least 20 mins to normalize, then thermal cycle at descending temps to grain refine to get results I was happy with. The upside is, Aldo’s steel seems to have very good hamon results, downside is it’s tough to achieve the desired results without a kiln or very controlled heat treating.

 

[Hubert S.]

Here are the pictures of the test break I did. Not sure what to think. "

" https://imgur.com/gallery/2xkQ2u5 if these pictures dont work then I give up trying to post pictures to this site and quit.

Don't give up so quickly. On imgur, just right-click on the picture and select "Copy image address". Then, paste that into the pop-up where it says "Image URL". If you cannot see the image in the editor, it will not post correctly.

 

[Vincent Price]

Don't give up so quickly. On imgur, just right-click on the picture and select "Copy image address". Then, paste that into the pop-up where it says "Image URL". If you cannot see the image in the editor, it will not post correctly.

Thanks. I do most everything from my phone which may be my problem.

 

[weo]

to me that looks a little coarse.

my phone which may be the problem

Probably, I hate surfing the forums on my phone....