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If you decide to go with O1 for your first steel, realize that O1 likes a good soak at temp prior to quenching. I soak O1 for 20 minutes once it's reached critical temperature. O1 will harden well in many oils. I used canola for a whole before stepping up to AAA. Brownell's Tough Quench would...

I use Parks#50 for my fast oil and AAA for a medium speed oil. Houghton has several oils that are equivalent. Brownell's Tough Quench is actually repackaged Houghton type G oil and is a medium speed oil, slightly faster than AAA from what I've heard. Houghton also has a type K that is a fast...

Is it just a discoloration or is it really a notch burned into the blade? Blue, gray, and rainbow discolorations are pretty normal and can result from air pockets and inconsistent contact in the foil pouch. I wonder if there was a hole in the pouch. --Nathan

I'd HIGHLY recommend a digital with any oven you choose. The manual controller will require constant attention to maintain temp, and on a 40 minute soak, that's a lot of wasted time. I've heard good things about the sugar creek ovens as well. --nathan

It's crap like this that could make someone feel stressed, threatened, or like doing harm to someone. Thanks for the heads up, Wayne. --nathan

From my understanding, they work well for getting smoothly into a radius with the edge of the belt, and they are less likely to bite into softer handle material creating a groove from the edge of the belt. I've been meaning to pick some up as well to use in guard polishing. --nathan

JEALOUS!! Great looking machine you picked up. You know what would go good with this thread....ACTION SHOTS!!! Pictures or it never happened...:D --nathan

Yep. Remember, if you get it too hot in one spot, that spot is going to bend first, and you'll end up with a different funny bend in the steel. Spread the heat evenly over the radius of the curve, and gently bend it just past neutral, let go, and see if it corrected things. You'll likely have...

Oh, and Park's#50 is a great fast oil for steels like 1095, 1084, W2, etc. For medium speed steels like O1 or CruforgeV, something like AAA is a great oil. They can usually be had in 5 gallon buckets if you can find a distributer. They're not cheap, but they last a good while, and you only...

Rodney, the only way you can determine if grain growth is a problem is by performance and destruction testing. As for performance, you want to put an edge on the knife and test by cutting rope, cardboard, hacking 2x4's, etc. If you're seeing edge chipping during hacking 2x4's or similar, it...

rreidiii, It was likely that way when you received the steel. Even precision ground won't always be straight, as the precision grind is just for the surfaces to get them parallel to a uniform thickness. During shipping, a 3' length or more of steel can and likely will take a slight bend...

Rodney, I'm sure Kevin will chime in as well, but I'd recommend 1080 or 1084 for heat treating at home with those tools available. They are as close to being eutectic as any knife steel out there, and as such, the heat treat is much simpler than other steels. For all intents and purposes, you...

Thanks, Jerry. But I'll be the first to tell you that there are a ton of guys on here that know way more than I do. I just try not to answer unless I've got a pretty solid handle on the answer. It's thanks to guys like Ed and Kevin and Tracy (and many others) that I know anything at all, and I...

It's hard to say if you nailed it or not. When I was using canola, I never really had any flare-ups. It sure smells nice though :D. Anyhow, you may be in the ball park. It's just impossible to know with what you did. A couple of common problems that you have to watch out for when you're not sure...

Kevin, I think you may have stumbled into a side job there. I wonder what the demand is for "high performance mower blades for those who are too particular to settle for good enough." :D I bet you could do a run of modified mower blades with L6 inserts and they would sell like hotcakes to the...

Should work with the proper female plug attached to the connection end. As long as it's rated for the amps you need. As for length, I made mine a couple or three feet in length just for ease of getting it plugged in and moving about. No need to go shorter really, and no need to lengthen it...

DANG IT!!! So DARN JEALOUS!!! No....wait, nevermind. I have the same oven :D ;). A suggestion, Frank: don't mess with the plug. Rather, make an adapter. Go pick up some appropriately gauged bundled/stranded wire and the appropriate plugs (a female to match the oven's plug and a male to...

Will do, Bill. I look forward to meeting you! --nathan

Just seeing if anyone is going to be getting down to San Antonio for the ABS Expo this weekend. I'll be there at the seminars and on the floor, and was curious if anyone familiar would be there as well. --nathan

Ron, I can't speak for John, but I get my LN at Airgas or Tri-Gas. As for storage, I picked up a liquid nitrogen dewar from a guy on Bladeforums a while back. It is surplus from some sort of genetics/biochem company. Check ebay for used dewars. If possible, get a guarantee that it is in good...