Search results

Hey, I've seen a lot of posts about the metal aftertaste left on things like apples after cutting them with a high carbon kitchen knife, and other posts about how a patina eventually diminishes this issue over time. So, if someone makes a chef's knife out of 1084, and does a stonewash finish...

You bring up a lot of good points and the previous suggestion of getting a hardness test kit makes me feel a bit better about leaving the oven until the end. Thank you very much for the feedback. Good thing it's tax return season!

BTW, what's the story with the knife on the front cover? It's a beautiful blade and I like the rustic handle, but my eye keeps looking at the mushed lanyard hole. There's gotta be something intriguing behind the image choice.....or I just might be slightly overanalyzing it, lol!

Thanks for your reply. After making the initial post, I have been going back and forth quite a bit. I was about to buy an Ameribrade, actually. As far as the heat treat goes, I just don't have a lot of confidence in the overall hardness when using such rudimentary equipment like a MAPP torch...

My mistake, I guess I conflated the two terms of decarb and forge scale. Is decarb bad? Prior to my initial HT I ground to about 80-90% and then finished up afterwards, resulting in a similar pattern after my etch as the second.

I lied. I forgot that I used a blue scotch brite belt to take off the last bits of stubborn decarb, dipping the blade in water when it got warm.

This is the second heat treat, so I didn't grind at all. Just hand sanding to get rid of the decarb layer and then cleaning it multiple times with isopropyl alcohol wearing latex gloves. Should I ditch the alcohol for acetone? My gut reaction is leaning towards leaving it too long in the acid...

Interesting. The etchant is brand new, just mixed. It does appear like some type of "organic" banding, which was modified somewhat after I did a new heat treat. I sanded it to 320 grit bare metal prior to the etch and scrubbed it well with 0000 steel wool after each etch. I followed the etching...

Anything bigger to me would feel like a coffee table book. 24.99 in US.

You don't even have a copy yet?! The book is great man. Thanks for putting it all together! I'll put a quick review on Amazon.

Ok, so I heat treated, tempered, sanded and etched a second time. A new pattern came out. This time I was sure to nail the heat treat as best as I could. What gives? Is my etchant too strong? Am I still messing up the heat treat? I have a 50/50 etchant mix and I do two cycles of eight minutes...

A few days ago, I received "Next Level Knifemaking", edited by Jason Fry, via Amazon. I bought this book because I'm very new to the hobby and I saw it mentioned by the author/editor himself on this very forum. I'm about a quarter of the way through, and I plan to write a full review once I...

Beautiful handle! What did you finish it with once you were done sanding?

Thank you! The handle is just long enough to fit comfortably in my fist with all four fingers. My hands are a bit thin but not by much. Definitely not bear paws. You can almost tell by the last two pictures.

I also use this file. Works great prior to heat treat.

Lol I hear ya bro. I'm basically lacking everything, but I'm doing good work currently with the grinding tool I have. It certainly isn't a long term solution, and I agree with you. But as my other post shows, I'm not doing good work with my heating setup. Gotta fix one thing at a time. I plan...

Thank you!

I'm glad I can salvage it but what a time-waster. I think I'm going to go for a HT oven. I'd like to eventually make things out of metals that are more difficult to heat treat at home, and I think this failure is the impetus to finally get me to pony up the cash.

Yes. I have a two brick forge that makes it difficult to heat up a larger knife like this. I thought I got the whole thing (minus the bottom of the tang) to nonmagnetic but I guess not. I'll try again.

I'm a new knife maker with a limited budget working with a two brick forge. My 1x30 is hanging in there, so instead of saving for the 2x72, I'd really prefer to buy a used 110v heat treating oven. If anyone out there is looking to upgrade their shop and sell an old oven, please let me know.