ron horton

In this particular batch, I had 4 blades side by side, edge down, tang up, separated and held in place with ceramic dowels.

Interesting! So maybe not a time issue at temp, but the quench oil being too hot?

Hello - got around to etching the blade pieces yesterday. I'm not sure what this may reveal, but perhaps someone with more knowledge can make a diagnosis? Thanks.

Snapped a blade and the grain is quite large. I'll reduce the hold time and see what I end up with. Thanks.

I just happen to have a pint on the shelf I bought based on one of your previous posts. Need to put to use.

I'll break a blade and see what the grain looks like. Joel - I did not use any type of anti-scale. I'll try some next time. Thank you all for your help and suggestions.

Ok. I was trying to make sure it was to temp. Would breaking one of the blades reveal anything useful?

Hi Alan - 10 minute +/- hold at temp during normalizing, air cooled and back into the over for the next normalization cycle. I think I got the sequence pretty good, but I know the oil was too hot, 150 degrees or more, when I quenched.

Hi Jerrod - greetings from Spokane. These blades were stock removal. I normalized 3 times at 1500, 1450, 1400 degrees and quenched at 1475. I held the blades 10 -15 minutes at quench temp. Tempered 3 times for an hour each at 350 degrees.

Hello Fellow Smiths - I'm using 1095 for the first time and following clean up after the HT, I have areas of what appear to be almost "blisters" on the blades. These areas appear to be super hard, making it difficult to remove the grinder marks. I used a heat treat oven and quenched in canola oil. The oil may have been closer to 150 degrees instead of the recommended 130. Is this decarb? It seems pretty deep, but does reduce with continued grinding, though I'm getting pretty close to final thickness for these blades. Thanks for the help! Ron

Outrageous! Well done!

Beautiful work Adam. Perhaps a less contrasting thread would blend with the leather making the slight irregularities in stitching less noticeable?