Forging knife blades for hunting knifes on Safari

Von Gruff said:

If you are using the bearing races that are 52100 then this might be of interest C&P fro Blade Forums

52100 is one of those steels that gets a lot of discussion. It can make a great knife, but the HT for it is not simple. It can make an OK knife with simpler procedures.
I will tell you the metallurgical way to do the HT for 52100:
The steel has 1% carbon and 1.4% chromium. This means that it is hyper-eutectoid steel with a fair amount of alloy to form chromium carbides. You will have to do the HT in such a way as to allow those elements to form the proper structures. To do this you will need a HT oven or forge that can be held at a controlled temperature for ten minutes, and a quench oil that will harden the blade. The oil should be a medium speed commercial quench oil, but Canola will do if nothing else is available. Forget about motor oil and ATF, etc.

Forging - Forge 52100 HOT. It is forged between 1700°F and 2100°F, and should not be forged in the lower red colors.
Normalize ( stress relieve) - Heat to 1650°F and air cool.
Annealing is tricky for 52100. The best way without really good equipment is to do a sub-critical anneal. Heat to 1250°F and cool to black. Then quench in oil. Do this a couple times.
Cycling the steel - This is one of the Triple Treatments often mentioned with 52100. It will get the steel ready for its final hardness and produce a fine grain. Start by heating the steel to 1650°F and quench in oil. Re-heat to 1350°F and quench in oil. Heat again to 1250° and cool to black, then quench in oil. Now the steel is ready to harden.
Hardening - Heat the steel to 1500-1525°F and hold for ten minutes. Quench in oil.
Tempering - Immediately temper at 400-450°F for two hours, cool in running water, and repeat the temper.
Cryo/Sub-zero treatment - 52100 can gain from cryo if you have the ability. Do a snap temper at 300°F and them immerse in a sub-zero bath at
-100° or in LN at -325°F. (An overnight stay in the home freezer won't do anything metallurgically.) After the sub-zero/cryo bath, temper as normal.

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Von Gruff said:

This is a reference to the same steel but he says to air cool to black instead of quenching for the normalising series. Do you have a means of guaging tempereture for heat treat - that is do you have gas forge or electric oven to controll temps which you will need to sucessfully HT this steel
https://knifedogs.com/threads/52100.34686/

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Solitaire said:

I'm not in the forging process, otherones are doing so well ! A best friend of mine does my blades from the damascus he forged. He worked +40 years in the metallurgic industrie as an engineer.
I began 6 years ago for my own use, and now I sell 10 to 12 pieces a year for friends.

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Gert Odendaal said:

Solitaire, you are fortunate..here is my country a Damascus billet is extremely expensive, even when making a knife from it to sell you will not get people who is willing to pay such a price for a hand made knife...

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Von Gruff said:

Lots of good videos on youtube on how to make hammers yourself

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mdwest said:

Ive got a couple of 2" thick crotch walnut pieces that have some really nice figuring in them.. I was planning on cutting them into boards to be used as scale type handles on full tang knives.. I might give your hole saw technique a try and work on some hidden tang knives.. the mix of woods and metal you have done look really nice and the contrast in grains from different parts of the wood stands out in a neat way as well..

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Gert Odendaal said:

Here is a photo of a knife with a handle I am trying a new technique to get a nicer look at the grain from olive wood
View attachment 343513

These are two experimental knifes I am making for out 1885 Era Black powder hunt kitchen utensils...

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Von Gruff said:

I take it that they are a peened tang Gert. That is a really nice technique.

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