Blades thickness - Heat treat

izafireman

Well-Known Member
I have all my blanks heat treated in bulk as they are laser cut from sheet and then I grind fully hardened.

I want to try a few knives in Damasteel 'Damascus' as I have had a few requests. So I am going to grind most of the knife in the annealed state but what I need to know is how much thickness I need to leave on the edge for the heat treat. So what should I leave please and I guess I am better off foil wrapping the blades for the HT?

Thanks P
 
Which variety of Damasteel? Everything pretty much depends on that. Personally, I wouldn't change processes, unless there was a distinct advantage to doing so...and in this case you'd likely be better served doing the same thing with Damasteel as you would with all your other blades. The rule of thumb in my shop is that anything 3/16" (4.7mm) or less is profiled, heat treated, then ground. Anything thicker gets rough ground to a 120 grit finish prior to heat treat, leaving the edge(s) no thinner then 3/32" prior to heat treat. Any time you choose to grind a thin edge then heat treat...you take your chances, in more ways than one. Always remember.....you grind it off if you need to.....but if it's too thin, you can never put any back.
 
Hi Ed

Its will be Markus Balbach of Germany.

I cannot put with my normal steel as totally different heat treat which has already been done, that was stainless, the new steel is carbon and so someone I know with an oven will do it for me. The industrial places would charge hundreds of £'s to heat treat one blank,

Regards

Pete
 
OK....so the material is not Damasteel (the company)? It's from an individual smith? So the Damascus is a mix of carbon steels? If that's so, then I would be even more inclined to leave it full thickness prior to heat treat, and do the bevels AFTER heat treat. If it's a carbon steel damascus, it's going to be much easier to grind versus stainless.
 
OK....so the material is not Damasteel (the company)? It's from an individual smith? So the Damascus is a mix of carbon steels? If that's so, then I would be even more inclined to leave it full thickness prior to heat treat, and do the bevels AFTER heat treat. If it's a carbon steel damascus, it's going to be much easier to grind versus stainless.


Ok thanks for the info. :)…..Oh and one of the blanks is a mixture of stainless, the other a mixture of carbon steels but I am guessing just shape them, heat treat and then do the grinds. Makes it much easier for me.
 
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