Services offered Heat treating - Carbon steel blades

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Stew

Bushcrafter through and through
Nov 29, 2003
6,446
1,284
Aylesbury
stewartjlight-knives.com
I am able to offer heat treating of carbon steel blades for those who don't have the facility to do this part themselves.

The process is performed in a digitally controlled kiln to enable accuracy. Steels include O1, 1095, 80CRV2, 52100 but feel free to enquire about others.

Size wise up to a 12" blade, but again if you have bigger then we can chat.

Cost is £8 per blade with postage charged at cost on top using whichever service suits you.
 

Macaroon

A bemused & bewildered
Jan 5, 2013
7,209
362
73
SE Wales
That's good to know, definitely a service that will come in handy for me and I'd imadine a good few others as well.
 

demographic

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Apr 15, 2005
4,691
710
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Just as a matter of interest and as I'm thinking about making a few plane blades in a variety of high speed steel.
Can you treat HSS and as theres several varieties which can/or can't you do.
I've recently a plane blade from Australia which I'm quite impressed by, and thats about an inch of HSS brazed onto some general nonspecific mild. The cutting edge being very hard but the rest only really holds the cutting edge in place so doesn't matter.
Anyway, that got me thinking about the bits of HSS on Ebay and do I want to have a go myself?
I'm happy enough with the shaping and sharpening but don't have the facilities to heat treat it.
 

demographic

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Apr 15, 2005
4,691
710
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No, sadly not. HSS is not an easy one to deal with.
Thats OK,thanks for replying.
After reading the spec sheet for some of the high speed steels I was expecting it to be a Lot more involved, to the point where the high price of the other HSS blades don't seem so bad, prety much a the work is in the heat treatment cos lets face it, plane blades aren't exactly rocket science shape wise.
 

Nicholas Belcher

New Member
Jun 7, 2019
4
1
38
Pembroke
Thanks for the reply Stew just had a delivery of fresh sanding belts will hopefully finish the initial bevel grind this week. How thick would you you recommend leaving blade edge before the heat treat I am working with thin 2mm stock don't want to risk warping.
 

Broch

Life Member
Jan 18, 2009
7,976
7,755
Mid Wales
www.mont-hmg.co.uk
Mmm... IMHO you can't do that unless you are wet-grinding i.e. have running water over your blade and belt. The tempering temperature for 01 steel is between 200 and 400 degrees C for hardness of between 60 and 50RC (approximately). Your thin blade edge will easily get up to 400 degrees C and beyond if you dry grind totally ruining any tempering that Stew has done for you.

I just don't understand how you can maintain a tempered blade hardness dry grinding after heat treating :dunno:
 

Dave Budd

Gold Trader
Staff member
Jan 8, 2006
2,894
321
44
Dartmoor (Devon)
www.davebudd.com
Mmm... IMHO you can't do that unless you are wet-grinding i.e. have running water over your blade and belt. The tempering temperature for 01 steel is between 200 and 400 degrees C for hardness of between 60 and 50RC (approximately). Your thin blade edge will easily get up to 400 degrees C and beyond if you dry grind totally ruining any tempering that Stew has done for you.

I just don't understand how you can maintain a tempered blade hardness dry grinding after heat treating :dunno:

Maybe you can't but many of us manage that fine

I do virtually ALL of my grinding post ht, including blades as thin as 1.5mm, O1 or otherwise. The key is sharp belts and practice
 

Broch

Life Member
Jan 18, 2009
7,976
7,755
Mid Wales
www.mont-hmg.co.uk
I'll have to bow to both of your levels of experience, and I realise it's easier, but I cannot see how you know what hardness the edge of the blade is. There are plenty of papers written about grinding damage of heat treated surfaces and when I was apprenticed it was always considered a no-no to carry out any serious levels of work on a heat treated part because it was impossible to say what hardness was achieved in the end - but that was the MOD and quality control was pretty strict and specifications were very tight.

I also accept that if you are using a forge or a flame to heat treat it's very easy to 'burn' the thin edge of a sharpened blade and so treating before final grinding is probably the better option. But if you're using a kiln to heat treat there's no possibility of 'burning' the edge.

Anyway, to each their own, I'll stick to the way I was taught, old habits die hard :)
 

Nicholas Belcher

New Member
Jun 7, 2019
4
1
38
Pembroke
I will be grinding with fresh 60 grit ceramic belts hopefully will be sharp enough plan to grind by hand to I can feel how hot the metal is and lots of dunking in cold water. I imagine I will still have to be very careful near the tip of the blade where it will be at it's thinnest.
 
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