New knife maker advice needed please – Did I Ruin My Scandi Knife?

[mtgmichael]

Hey folks,

I’m working on my first bushcraft knife and could use some advice. I’ve got a blade blank shaped out, but I think I might have messed up.

I ground the Scandi bevel almost all the way down to zero before heat treating it. I’ve since heard that can be a bad idea because it can warp or even crack when it goes through heat treat.

Should I:

Leave it as is and risk it warping?

Or grind the edge back so it’s around 1–2mm thick before heat treaat? (Which would mean the blade ends up slimmer than I wanted.)


Would love to hear from anyone who’s done this before. Am I overthinking this, or do I need to fix it before moving on?

Thanks!

(I’ve got dyslexia, so I used AI to help write this out so it’s easier to read – just letting you know in case it sounds a bit “polished.”)

 

[crosslandkelly]

There are a few good knife makers on the forum, so someone will be along soon to pass on some advice. Photos often help.

 

[stonepark]

What is you heat treat kit and process?

Most warping is caused by over heating the steel.

Assuming you have annealed steel and just gone down the material removal route, if you can control temperature accurately, and if you have a temperature controlled kiln you should be fine.

Victorinox pen knife blades are heat treated and not very thick.

 

[Broch]

I take all my blades down to near 'sharp' thickness before hardening but I use a temperature controlled kiln for the heat treatment so there's far less chance of 'burning'. We've had a discussion on this subject before (a long while back) and many of the more experienced makers on here grind after hardening. I have no way of wet grinding, so I'm more worried about losing the temper on the edge if I grind after hardening (it's very hard to keep the edge temperature below 200C if you can't wet grind). I've no intention of going down that discussion route again - it got a little heated (no pun intended ) - each to their own.

 

[C_Claycomb]

How did you grind the blade? Do you have a belt sander or did you have to use an angle grinder or some other tool? What kind of steel? How are you going to heat it?

If you have a belt sander or belt grinder, you have little to lose to just try heat treating as it is. I wouldn’t grind off material. Decarb is more of a risk than cracking. The material you might grind off to thicken the edge is material that is protecting underlying steel.

You will make mistakes on your first. And on your second. And third….and 12th etc. it will be a long time before you can afford to be so picky as to abandon a blade when you realise a mistake. You will still learn stuff. You might decide not to fit a handle, but you will learn about the HT, which is one of the most important steps.

I wouldn’t worry about warp just because you ground the edge of a Scandi thin. It’s not like a full flat kitchen knife.

Chris