I thought a would make a head knife

[tomcat]

Now we come to the heat treating....O1 is an oil hardening steel whick means that after you reach the proper temp. you quench it in oil....At this point you need a mapp torch, you use the same tip as on a propane torch, assuming you have one, you can get Mapp gas at Lowe's or HD, its in a yellow container, and produces a much hotter flame...Now you have to get the steel to 1500 degrees, or until the steel becomes anti-magnetic....What you do is while you are heating it have a magnet in you hand and keep touching the steel with it, until you no longer feel it sticking ( usually around cherry red).....Then you quench it in oil...Now what i did was got an old metal icecube tray and put enough oil in it so you can dip the edge in it...I used some motor oil i had...Also be careful where you do this and have a fire extinguisher ready, the oil will flame up but should go out very fast...I should mention that you put the knife in slowly, too fast and it might crack....More pictures and info coming next....

[tomcat]

Now the steel should be cool enough to touch, run a file across where you hardend the steel, and it should kinda skate across, if it does you did it right, if it doesn't and files very easy, that means it wasn't hot enough...Now lets assume everything went well, now you have to temper it...what i did was got an old toaster oven, and set the temp. to 350 for 2 hours...You can use you regular oven if you want its only a piece of steel it won't hurt anything....Also some other things to mention, before you first heat the steel with the torch make sure its cleaned of all the preservative oils and when you quench it it will become black, and if you sanded and polished it before it should polish back up again..

[rdb]

Wow, that's just great! Thank You for this, tomcat.

[tomcat]

I had a piece of cocobolo that i had left over from another project that i used, you can use anything even leather....I drilled two holes where i wanted to attach the handle, then i sanded everything together, also i put tape over the Blade to protect myself...I also got some brass screws and cut other slots with my Dremmel, and put the nuts on another screw and put it in my drill and made the nuts round by holding a file against them....More pictures coming....

[UKRay]

Very helpful indeed. Many thanks for your time and effort, Tomcat.

Ray

[tomcat]

[tomcat]

Thank you all it was my pleasure to do it....I, like a lot of others have gotten tons of infomation from the unselfish people on this forum who readily give their secrets away...If something is not clear, feel free to contact me, and remember the info for heat treating and tempering is for O1 steel only, other steels differ, some greatly...Have fun and above all be safe...Tom

[electrathon]

Very good tutorial. A couple things I would like to add: When oil quenching, any oil will work. Used engine oil really stinks. Cooking oil is a lot more plesant smelling. Olive oil almost smells good. A lot of people use old engine oil for cost reasons though.

When doing the quench, if you do not submerge the steel in the oil and keep it moving you tend to get a mixture of very hard and softer spots. If you just plunge it in without moving it there will be bubbles formed from the boiling of the oil that can even damage the blade. If the blade is completely submerged, the fire will generally go out right away. If you leave the hot metal partly out, you will have flame as the oil is igniting on the not submerged steel.

[ArtS]

Thanks!!! This is great info. I didn't know about the heat treating. I'm etching to try one now.

I've read about some people using circular saws to make one. Have you ever tried this? Is that metal ok to use and would you still need to heat treat it?

Thanks again - this was a great tutorial.

Art

[oneminer]

Thank you for an excellent post. I often thought about making a head knife, but didn't know where to start. Your post gives the confidence to try. Now if I can only make the time.