Buying a knife made of high-quality steel is, of course, not a problem. If there is not enough assortment of regular or branded blades, you can find a specialist who works on an individual order.
However, you can go another way - make a knife yourself. You most likely won’t be able to forge the perfect blade the first time, but who knows...
A homemade knife made from cable is a worthwhile undertaking; the result can be a high-quality blade with a visible pattern on the blade, formed by mixing layers of metal during the forging process.
Material selection
In our time, only true connoisseurs of this craft engage in blade making. However, even a novice blacksmith and anyone can try to forge a homemade knife.
The easiest way to do this is from a piece of thick reinforcement, an old file or a piece of a car spring. It will be a little more difficult to unforge the drill or bearing race. You can get an interesting result from a spun chain from a chainsaw or car engine.
Another material that, after forging, can become a high-quality blade is cable. Its cores are made of carbon steel, capable of holding an edge well after hardening. If you manage to preserve the braided pattern after forging, you can get a very original blade, vaguely reminiscent of wild Damascus steel.
What do you need to know to figure out how to make a knife from rope? Two important nuances: first - whether the properties of the high-carbon material will be preserved during processing; the second is whether a visible pattern will appear on the blade, gracefully turning into a sharpened edge.
Damascus steel
Previously, sharp, flexible and reliable blades with a patterned pattern on the blade were called damask blades (according to one version, from the province of Fulad in Persia, where they were made). Such characteristics and visible effects were achieved using various methods.
Steel could be smelted in a crucible by metallurgical casting, experimenting with the composition of the material. Another option is to “weld” steel strips of different hardnesses in a forge and then forge the resulting workpiece. Blades forged by blacksmiths using a special technique began to be called Damascus.
They differ precisely in the manufacturing method and technology, and not in the characteristics and degree of expression of the pattern. Having unforged a knife from a cable, you can try to create a blade with your own hands that vaguely resembles such material. And although the design on the blade is not an end in itself, it is still distinctive feature Damascus steel.
Blacksmithing tools and materials
To forge a knife from a cable with your own hands, you need to master the craft of a blacksmith at least at a minimum level. To do this, you will need a pair of hammers: one massive (up to 2 kg), the other lighter (up to 0.5 kg) for fine work, pliers, an anvil and a homemade furnace (forge crucible) with forced air supply.
The manufacturing process cannot be done without an angle grinder or electric welding. You will need a vice and the fuel for the crucible can serve charcoal from rocks that produce great heat, because the workpiece will have to be heated to a temperature of over 1200 ° C.
For better “welding”, you can use borax as a flux. It removes scale and prevents carbon from burning out of the material. It is also necessary to prepare the oil for hardening and ensure safety precautions.
Being able to use someone's blacksmith shop or business forge with a mechanical hammer will make the task much easier.
Preparatory operations
To make a knife from a cable, first of all you need to sketch it out on paper. Then you will have to find a suitable material. It is necessary to check it and at least remotely determine the carbon composition in it.
It depends on this whether the future blade will be hardened, whether it will hold an edge, and whether it will be possible to carry out forge “welding.” The test is carried out for sparks from a moderately dense orange sheaf will mean that welding is possible, the steel contains about 1% carbon, which is enough for hardening.
Next you need to cut a piece of cable to the required length. At this stage, the method of manufacturing the handle is determined. It can be made from a single piece of cable without forging. The knife will look original, but have decent weight.
Another option is to electric weld a reinforcement rod to a section of cable. It is convenient to hold on to such a handle when heating the workpiece in the crucible and processing it with hammers. You can then make a handle on it or, by riveting it, install decorative overlays.
Before starting work, the cable is tightened with clamps from steel wire in several places. This is done so that during the heating process the thin wires do not unravel.
The workpiece is placed in the lit crucible and allowed to heat up to 800 °C. At this stage, the cable strands are released (annealing), the material becomes pliable. Additionally, oil and dirt burns out.
After cooling, the workpiece is clamped in a vice and one of the ends of the cable is welded using electric welding. Using an adjustable wrench, it is “tightened” as we weave to maximum density. The other edge is scalded while simultaneously fastening a piece of reinforcement for ease of work.
The wire clamps are removed, the workpiece is heated to 1200 °C, and generously sprinkled with borax. This is necessary for better penetration. After reheating, forge “welding” is performed. Using a heavy hammer, the cable is broken flat and periodically sprinkled with borax.
The workpiece is constantly heating up. The more often this is done, the more intensively the forging occurs, the better the material is “welded.” After rough processing, they move on to forging the blade, the future cutting edge, and the shank. At this stage, a smaller hammer is used more, giving the workpiece an outline reminiscent of a sketch of the future blade.
Complexities of technology
It is necessary to constantly monitor the temperature of the workpiece, not allowing it to cool. Working with a heavy hammer, especially without proper practice and experience, can easily damage the curls of the cable in places where a distinct weave pattern should remain. Unwanted hits with the edge or corner of a sledgehammer on a heated workpiece leave deep dents that cannot always be ground off.
During operation, the process of carbon burning out of the metal is inevitable. There are craftsmen who forge a knife from a cable on dense wood placed on the plane of an anvil. When it comes into contact with heated metal, it smolders, and the oxygen in the air at the point of contact is burned, which reduces the degree of carbon burnout from the material. In addition, by unforging the cable on a tree, you ensure that the workpiece cools more slowly, so you can do a larger amount of work in one cycle.
Special approach
Forging a knife from a cable is also possible using another technology. There are craftsmen who, before forge “welding,” pack an annealed and compacted cable blank of the required length into a piece of stainless steel pipe. Its diameter is selected in such a way that the cable fits into it very tightly, with some effort.
Both ends of such a case are welded by electric welding, fusing the ends of the cable with the pipe. The workpiece is heated to a temperature of 1200-1300 °C and in this form is unforged. The alloyed stainless steel of the pipe with the cable is not welded, but serves only as a protective cover against uneven forging. In addition, the hot cable does not come into contact with air oxygen and the carbon in it burns out minimally during forging.
If you use this hydraulic press, then forge “welding” can be significantly simplified. After heating to 1300 °C, the case with the cable inside is placed under load and left until it cools. If you use dies, you can immediately form thickenings under the neck for the transition from the blade to the handle and the butt of the shank. During the next heating, the shape of the blade is finalized by hammering through the case.
After cooling, the pipe is cut off with sandpaper from the end where the tip will be. The case is carefully opened using a chisel. Further processing of the workpiece occurs on an emery wheel. The excess areas are pre-cut and the blade beveled without final sharpening.
Heat treatment
Blade hardening is just as important as the choice of steel. According to the technology, the cable knife after forging has tension, it must be removed. To do this, the workpiece is heated to 800 °C and allowed to cool.
Hardening is carried out by heating the blade to 1200 °C. It is lowered point down into heated oil and held motionless. The blade must then be released. It is cleaned of carbon deposits, heated to 200 °C and dipped into oil again.
Some craftsmen harden knives through oil (lower for two seconds) and then place them in salted water.
Etching and finishing work
After heat treatment, the cable knife is polished, and the final finishing of the blade blade and shank for attaching the handle are made. To develop the design, the workpiece is dipped into a solution (5%) and left for etching. Treatment time depends on the desired effect and can be up to one hour.
If before this you stick a stencil on the blade, on which the manufacturer’s logo (initials or any design) is cut out, as a result it will be imprinted on the steel and will indicate the authorship of the blade. After this, fine grinding is done with fine-grained sandpaper and the blade is polished.
Before this operation or after, the selected type of handle is installed. These can be overlays made of valuable wood with an interesting texture, stacked washers of various materials in any sequence, or, for example, a piece of deer antler.
It may not be possible to make such an original and skillfully made rope knife (photo above) the first time, but if you want to master the craft of blade making, you should strive for this result.
Recycled raw materials will not allow you to make a blade highest quality. But many people like the feeling of other materials being reborn into cutting and piercing objects. For example, forging a knife from a file or chain, spring, valve, bearing, cable, drill.
Bearing knife
For knives, bearings from cars are used, usually with a diameter of 10-15 centimeters.
Rope knives
The cable makes good blades, but the Damascus properties are not high due to the large patterns. Cable knives contain a small amount of carbon, so a Damascus cutting edge must be welded to their bodies.
Spring knives
Many people prefer to make knives with their own hands from springs that were made back in the Soviet period. Then high-quality steel 65G was used for the spring. The properties of the spring metal are increased due to the correct ratio components and technological heat treatment. If the spring knives are overheated, they will become brittle.
Chain knives
Recycled material such as chains is widely used for forging. Most often these are chains from a chainsaw, but there are also motor chains from a gasoline engine.
Valve knives
To make knives with your own hands, hollow exhaust valves are taken from the valve. Not every craftsman knows how to correctly pull the knife out of the valve. Therefore this is not the best option.
Drill knives
Good knives come from a drill. Tool steel, from which the drills are made, speaks for itself. If you properly harden a blade made with your own hands from a drill, it will not break under impact loads and will be able to withstand high bending loads.
File knives
To make it yourself, you first need to draw a sketch - the shape of the blade and handle, choose the mounting method, as in the video. The metal for the file is carbon steel U10. Its hardness is 57 - 58 HRC. These properties of the metal are preserved during forging, and knives made from a file are strong, have high cutting performance and can withstand heavy loads.
Saw knives
An alternative would be to use a powered rail saw. Their strength is even higher than that of files. Both of these products are ideal for forging knives at home. Since the old file is more accessible, we will consider the technology from it in more detail. You can also watch the process on video.
Stages of converting a file into a knife
Forging at home should be carried out with strict adherence to all safety precautions.
We will use:
- A file (preferably Soviet).
- Material for making the handle (plastic, bone, wood, etc.).
- Shoe polish and wax.
- Gas stove or other heating device.
- A machine, a vice and a grinder.
- Magnet.
- Sandpaper.
- Material for rivets (preferably brass).
- Glue for leather and metal.
First, we fire the file in the oven, as in the video. Heat it for 6 hours and leave it there until it cools completely. We do this so that the steel becomes the same as before factory processing. Instead of a stove, you can use hot coals from a fire. At home, you can use a gas burner for this. The future knife is placed on it in the place where the cutting part is supposed to be. A metal heat shield is placed on top so that it does not touch the file. The workpiece is sprinkled with salt, which should melt when heated. Process time – 6 hours.
Then they cut off all the excess from the workpiece so that it matches the drawn sketch. Now you need to drill holes for the rivets and harden the future knife. The workpiece is heated evenly until it glows the same color. The handle does not need to be hardened. If the steel is hardened, it will not be magnetic. This is a signal for further action. At this stage the workpiece should scratch the glass if done correctly.
The most important part of the matter is completed, you can begin tempering - the process of changing the properties of steel in order to reduce brittleness. To do this, you need to heat the knife in the oven for two hours. Then the knife is ground and brought to a smooth surface, as in the video.
The next step will be etching the steel with ferric chloride. The result will be the formation of an oxide film, which will protect the metal from corrosion. If ferric chloride is not available, you can use vinegar or lemon juice.
The final step is the handle. It sits on the glue and is riveted. Sharpening is supposed to be done manually, as in the video, since the knife is not afraid of scratches. In any case, hand sharpening is better than clumsy sharpening on a machine. Now the blade needs to be waxed. It is advisable to sharpen knives before the metal is completely hardened.
Instead of a false handle, you can use leather, which must be wound evenly and brought to a uniform state using shoe polish.
It should be noted that knives made at home are very resistant to mechanical processing and after hardening, they can only be sharpened using a diamond sharpening machine. With a regular sharpener you can only correct manual sharpening.
Today, even with this large assortment various knives of excellent quality from famous manufacturers, knives hand forged are still very popular. This is not surprising, since such knives have a special energy and attractiveness. And if the blade itself is made of alloy steel and with skill, then such a knife is priceless. From in various ways When making a knife with your own hands, the most labor-intensive is forging a knife with your own hands. It should be noted that forging a knife allows you to create the most durable and high-quality blade that will last for decades and at the same time retain its qualities. Forging a knife with your own hands is a task that requires the craftsman to have a high level of tool skills, knowledge of metals and their properties. For those who have decided to forge a knife for the first time, the recommendations described below will help you make your first blade.
How to choose knife steel
A high-quality homemade knife is distinguished by the correct selection of steel for it; the cutting and strength characteristics of the knife itself will depend on this. To choose the right steel, you need to know and understand what properties the steel itself has. To forge a knife with your own hands, you need to focus on the five main properties of steel - wear resistance, hardness, strength, toughness, and red-hardness.
Hardness- this is a property of steel, indicating its ability to resist the penetration of another more hard material. Simply put, hard steel resists deformation better. The hardness index itself is measured on the Rockwell scale and ranges from 20 to 67 HRC.
Wear resistance- resistance of the material to wear during operation. This property directly depends on the hardness of the steel itself.
Strength indicates the ability to maintain integrity under the influence of various external forces. You can check the strength by bending or with a strong impact.
Plastic- the ability of steel to absorb and dissipate kinetic energy during impact and deformation.
Red fastness- this is an indicator responsible for the resistance of steel to temperatures and the preservation of its original qualities when heated. The minimum temperature at which it can be forged depends on how resistant the steel is to heat treatment. The most red-resistant steels are hard grades, operating temperature forgings for which more than 900 °C. It should be noted that the melting point of steel is 1450 - 1520 °C.
All these properties are interconnected and the predominance of one of them leads to the deterioration of the other. Moreover, this or that property of steel depends on the content of various alloying elements and additives in it, such as silicon, carbon, chromium, vanadium, tungsten, cobalt, nickel, molybdenum.
The presence of certain alloying elements and their proportional use in the manufacture of steel, knowledge of the properties that alloying elements and additives impart, made it possible to create steel for specific purposes and needs. These steels each have their own markings. At the same time, domestic and foreign steel grades are designated differently. For convenience, the steel grade indicates the main composition of one or more alloying elements. For example, steel grade U9 indicates its carbon content in tenths of a percent. An analogue of steel grade “U” is steel 10xx, where “xx” is the carbon content. And the smaller the value, the smaller its content. Or steel such as X12MF indicates a high content of chromium and molybdenum, which indicates the stainless and high-strength properties of the steel.
Domestic brands, which are often used when forging knives at home, include all steels marked from U7 to U16, ШХ15, 65G, R6M5, X12MF. From foreign analogues steel can be distinguished O-1, 1095 , 52100 ,M-2, A-2, 440C, AUS, ATS-34, D-2. Each of the above brands is used in the manufacture of knives, various tools and spare parts. For example, steel grades R6M5, U7-U13, 65G are used for the production of drills, drills, cables, springs, bearings, and files. Therefore, it is from these items that folk craftsmen make hand-forged knives.
Of course, you can find other products made from one or another steel. To do this, it will be enough to read the full description of the steel grade and its use in the Steel and Alloys Brand, and then use a product made from it to forge a knife.
To forge a knife, you will need a certain blacksmith's tool, which can be purchased at the store. But you can also use a non-professional tool:
- a hammer of 3 - 4 kg and a hammer of smaller weight up to 1 kg;
- blacksmith's tongs or ordinary pliers, but without insulation on the handles, as well as an adjustable wrench;
- vice;
- an anvil or its homemade analogue from an I-beam;
- grinder and welding machine;
- sharpening machine;
- bake.
If everything is more or less clear with a conventional tool, then some explanations need to be made regarding the furnace. The thing is that in an ordinary fireplace it is difficult to obtain a temperature of more than 900 °C. And the workpiece will take forever to warm up there. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the hearth a little. If you have not previously at least hardened metal, you will have to make a small furnace from scratch from thick-walled metal. Then attach a pipe to it, through which air will flow using a fan or an old vacuum cleaner. In this simple way, you can get a fairly reliable crucible for bringing workpieces to a temperature of 900 - 1200 ° C. Regular charcoal is used as fuel, preferably one that gives as much heat as possible and burns longer.
Before starting the work itself, you need to do sketch the knife itself.
In fact, a knife is a fairly simple object, consisting of a blade and a handle. But each of these elements has a whole set of components. In the photo demonstrating the design of the knife, you can see all the elements of the knife and what they are called.
You also need to know about some basic blade profiles in order to make the most suitable sketch. The photo below shows the profiles of the knives.
Having chosen the most suitable profile for you, you can safely begin creating a sketch. Of course, experienced craftsmen do without sketching, but for a beginner it is still important to make a sketch and keep it before your eyes during the forging process.
Forging a knife from a drill
Drills received great popularity when forging knives thanks to the R6M5 alloy steel used in them, which is durable, easy to sharpen and wear-resistant.
When choosing a drill for forging, one thing to note is important point. Large drills consist of a working spiral part made of P6M5 and a shank made of ordinary steel. Small drills are usually made entirely of P6M5. When forging a knife from a large drill, you must immediately determine which steel is which and where the boundary between them is. This can be done quite simply, just by sharpening the drill a little along the entire length. Where there is ordinary steel, the sheaf of sparks will be large and yellow-orange in color. But where there is alloy steel, the sheaf will be sparse and closer to a reddish tint. The procedure described above is necessary in order to determine where the blade of the knife will begin and where the shank will begin. Having finished with this, we move on to the forging itself.
In the beginning light a fire in the stove, turn on the blower and wait until the coals get hot enough, after which place the drill in the crucible. But we do this using pliers and so that the shank mostly stayed out of the fire.
Important! When forging a knife for the first time, you may not immediately determine when the metal has heated up to required temperature. As a result, more than one drill can be damaged. Therefore, before you start forging a drill, you can practice a little with heating and forging metal on ordinary fittings. In this case, it is necessary to remember what color the metal was and when it was forged most softly. It is also worth remembering that in sunlight, even metal heated to 1100 ° C will look dark.
As soon as the drill will heat up to the required temperature, which is more than 1000 °C, it is immediately necessary remove from the crucible, and clamp the bottom of the shank in a vice. Then take an adjustable wrench, hold the top of the drill with it and make a circular motion, straightening the spiral. Everything must be done quickly so that the metal does not have time to cool, otherwise you risk breaking the drill. If you couldn't do it in one go, that's okay. Just reheat the drill and repeat the procedure. The result should be a relatively smooth strip of metal.
The next step would be forging drill And rolling metal to an acceptable thickness. Everything is quite simple here. Having heated the metal to the required temperature, we take a heavy hammer and begin to level the metal with strong but uniform blows and give it an even shape. The result should be a strip of metal about 4 - 5 mm thick.
Important! When forging metal, you must constantly monitor the color of the workpiece. As soon as it begins to fade, acquiring a cherry color, we immediately return it to the forge. It is better to heat the metal one more time than to break it under a hammer blow.
Next the edge of a knife is forged. Everything is a little more complicated here. The fact is that it is necessary to give a rounded shape and at the same time maintain the required thickness of the blade. All the work is practically jewelry and will require a certain dexterity. Forging is performed in such a way that gradually rounding the tip, the blade is gradually drawn out in length. The blows must be strong, but careful. A beginner may not succeed the first time, but a little practice will improve everything.
The next step would be forging the cutting edge of a knife. This is a rather important and difficult stage. This will require a lighter hammer and preferably one with a rounded head. Starting from the middle of the blade, we gradually move the metal down to the cutting edge. We try to make the cutting edge as thin as possible. At the same time, we make sure that the blade itself remains straight and even. We apply the blows very carefully and try to apply only as much effort as is required to slightly deform the hot metal. We remember the color of the workpiece and, if necessary, send it back to the crucible.
After we managed to forge the blade and the tip, move on to forging the shank. The work itself will be much simpler than when forging a blade. First, we heat the round shank of the drill and then roll it out with strong hammer blows. Depending on the sketch, the shank can be either narrow or wide. Here, who already likes to make the handle of a knife. Some people make simple overlays, while others make a stacked handle.
Upon completion of forging, let the metal cool gradually and then let's move on to polishing. On grinding machine We remove excess layers of metal and unevenness, making the knife perfectly smooth and shiny. When sanding, up to 2 mm of thickness can be removed, and the knife will become much lighter and thinner. You can also sharpen the knife at this stage. Finally, we harden the knife. How this is done will be written below.
Forging a knife from a drill video review:
Another popular material for forging knives is the bearing, namely its inner or outer rim. Moreover, the internal one is even preferable. All work on forging a knife from a bearing is almost identical to forging from a drill. With some exceptions.
First, we cut out the blank from the bearing rim using a grinder. We try to take the length with a reserve, so that there is enough for the knife and another 1 - 2 cm left. Secondly, at the initial stage of forging, the cut blank should be welded to the reinforcement bar. And in this form, heat and forge. Thirdly, if in the case of a drill the workpiece was rolled out from round to flat, then for the bearing race it simply needs to be aligned. And the further steps for forging the blade itself and the shank are completely similar. The only thing worth noting is that it is still more convenient to make a knife with applied handles from the bearing.
Forging a knife from a bearing video review:
In search of suitable steel for a quality knife, many people use springs. The metal of this car parts It is characterized by high elasticity and durability, which makes it an excellent example for hand-forged knives. In fairness, it should be noted that a knife from a spring can be made by simply cutting out the profile of the knife with further sharpening and hardening. But still, for the knife to be truly reliable, it is better to forge it, especially since the thickness of the spring is quite large, and for good knife it should be reduced.
We begin forging a knife from a spring by cleaning off rust with a grinder and marking the plate. Only a small part of the spring will be needed, so mark it and cut it off using a grinder. Next, we weld the workpiece to the reinforcement and heat it up. Then we gradually forge it, bringing it to the required thickness. We forge the tip and cutting edge; how to do this is described above using the example of forging a knife from a drill. Having achieved the desired result, we leave the knife to cool gradually and then grind and sharpen it.
Forging a knife from a spring video review:
Forging a knife from a file
Wear-resistant and durable steel can be found in various metalworking tools, and a file is a prime example of this. Making knives from a file is quite a popular activity. Moreover, the blades are extremely durable with an excellent cutting edge. But forging a knife from a file has its own characteristics.
First of all, you will need to clean the file from nicks and possible rust. This can be done using a grinder. Next, if necessary, cut the workpiece from the file to the required length. Then we weld it to a piece of reinforcement and put it in the furnace. Having heated the workpiece to the required temperature, we begin to roll the workpiece to the thickness we need. Then we make the point and cutting edge. It is best to make the shank of a knife from a file under an overhead handle.
Forging a knife from a file video review:
Forging a knife from a rope
Making a knife from steel cable is quite rare. Since, unlike all the workpieces described above, the cable consists of scattered fibers of wire, and it is quite difficult to forge them. In addition, the steel of the cable does not have such high characteristics as the steel of a drill or file. Most cable knives are forged because of their unusual pattern on the wedge, vaguely reminiscent of Damascus steel. In order to make such a knife, you need to put in a little more effort than when forging from a regular steel bar.
Forging a knife from a cable begins like regular forging. There are just a few little secrets. Firstly, this concerns the shank. Many craftsmen make a knife shank from a cable in the form of a finished handle. It looks very unusual and beautiful. And here there are two approaches to making a handle. Take a thick cable and then weld its end, making it a monolithic piece. Or make a handle in the shape of a loop, and forge a blade from the ends. Secondly, forging a cable is a difficult task due to the scattered wires that make up the cable. To make a knife, you will need to weld them together. But this is a whole art and you shouldn’t expect that you will get a knife out of a cable the first time. Welding can be done in two ways. The first is to electric weld along the large grooves. The second is to perform forge welding. The second option is more complicated and at the same time preferable.
So, having chosen the method of creating the handle, we proceed to forging the knife. To do this, heat the cable until it turns bright red. Then we take it out and sprinkle it with borax. After which we send it back to the crucible. This is a simple way to prepare for forge welding. is a salt of tetraboric acid and is used by craftsmen for welding individual layers of steel. Essentially, it is a flux that facilitates the melting process and protects the molten metal from oxygen and eliminates metal oxides. Borax can be found in the public domain without any problems.
After the cable has been treated with borax on all sides and it has heated up from 900 to 1200°C or more, we remove it from the furnace and begin to forge it. We strike with a heavy hammer, but at the same time we try to keep the cable fibers together. The difficulty of forging a cable lies precisely in this. But with practice you can achieve acceptable results. In the end, the cable can be heated and forged as many times as desired. But at the same time, every time you heat it in the forge, sprinkle the cable with borax. The result is a monolithic piece of steel consisting of many layers, almost like Damascus steel. After which all that remains is to forge the blade of the required shape. Videos demonstrating the forging of knives have repeatedly shown exactly how to roll out a blade and create a cutting edge and point.
Blade hardening and tempering
As noted earlier, hardening a knife is one of the most important stages of its manufacture. After all, the performance characteristics of the knife depend on how correctly it was performed. The hardening process itself is performed after the knife has cooled and been ground on a sharpening machine.
It starts with heating it from light red to orange. After which the knife is lowered into water or oil. In this case, add 2 - 3 tablespoons to the water table salt per 1 liter, and the water temperature should be 18 - 25 °C, oil 25 - 30 °C. Hardening is carried out quite quickly and for everything to go well after hardening, the blade must be released. The steel hardening itself occurs in the temperature range from 750 to 550 °C. The moment of hardening can even be felt when the steel begins to “tremble and groan” in the liquid. As soon as the process ends, the blade must be removed and allowed to cool naturally.
Blade release performed after hardening. The process itself involves weakening the internal stress of the steel, which makes it more flexible and resistant to various types of loads. Before tempering, the blade should be cleaned of possible scale and then heated again. But the temperature during vacation is much lower. The knife itself must be held over the flame and observed. As soon as the entire surface is covered with a yellow-orange film, remove the knife from the heat and let it cool naturally.
Sometimes quenching and tempering are done with oil or water, and sometimes through oil into water. This hardening is done very quickly. First, the blade is lowered into oil for 2 - 3 seconds, and then into water. With this approach, the risk of doing the hardening incorrectly is minimal.
Forging a knife with your own hands seems like a simple task. In addition to the fact that you will have to swing the forging hammer quite a lot, even without experience in the matter of forging metal, you may not be able to forge a knife the first time. Therefore, you first need to get good at it and practice a little, and then start forging a knife.
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