I'm about to heat treat my first Bowie

A.W.Stovall

A.W.Stovall

Well-Known Member
Any recomendations before I heat treat it I left some stock on it for cleaning up, its my first stick tang its 1084P1010103.jpgP1010105.jpgP1010104.jpg
 
I would normalize it a couple of time even though I take it you made the blade by stock removal. It will relieve any stresses that are in the steel that has built up along the way and make sure that the grain is as fine as you can get it. I would use oil. If you got it from Aldo, vegatable oil should work fine. Try to heat it to just above non-magnetic and soak lone enough to make sure it's heated all the way through; there's not much in the way of carbides to disolve and most of it will be cementite so no long soak should be required. I would probably temper it to about 375 degrees unless you think it will be use for a lot of chopping, then I'd try 400 degrees which worked for two big choppers I made from that steel. I recommend that you test the hardness of the edge before putting a handle on it. Just tape it up with blue masking tape to protect the surface and your fingers while you put a handle and any furniture on it.

You appear to have done some real good work there. I hope you post pictures of the final product. It's looking good.

Doug
 
Thanks And yes it is stock removal, I have done some nearly that big but they were kitchen knives and a lot thinner. Some one gave me the 1084 when I bought a even heat from him. When I do heat treat it is it better to do it in the oven or a forge I don't have my forge done but I do have a friend close by with a forge?
 
You could austinize it in an oven, and I take it you mean something more like an electric kiln. If you have a regulated heat treating oven then I'd heat it to 1450 just lone enough to heat it through and take it back out to cool and repeat twice to normalize. Then I would take it back up to temperature, again making sure it was heat treated through and then quench. Then temper in an oven to 375-400 degrees for at least two two hour cycles.

If you have access to a regulated heat treating oven or a molten salt pot that will run in the range that you need it is always preferable to a forge.

Doug
 
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