Thread: RSO # 1

Looking good there bud. That's coming out great.

Good to see it pressing again

Originally Posted by skipnord

Bring the blade up to almost non-magnetic and air cool twice, and then again and cool in vermiculite or ashes overnight....

Neither of these suggestions will serve you best with a steel like O1. Bringing up to almost non-magnetic will not normalize steel nor will it reduce grain size. At best, it will stress relieve steel that has already been normalized and ground/machined. Trying to "anneal" a hypereutectoid steel with alloying the elements like O1 by putting it in ashes or vermiculite will introduce some not so desirable elements into the mix.

Thanks for your input JDM61. What's done is done so, what have I done then ? I do know it is possible to file it now were as before the file just slipped across the metal surface. I am going to do some filing on the tang ( a little more detail refining) and then heat treat and temper. Probably with a new oven.
From what I understand I can then final grind and hone it up.

Hurry up and finish it. That looks like it will turn out really well.

Originally Posted by JDM61

Neither of these suggestions will serve you best with a steel like O1. Bringing up to almost non-magnetic will not normalize steel nor will it reduce grain size. At best, it will stress relieve steel that has already been normalized and ground/machined. Trying to "anneal" a hypereutectoid steel with alloying the elements like O1 by putting it in ashes or vermiculite will introduce some not so desirable elements into the mix.

Okay, I must have missed something. 10Pups said he took the steel to "past non magnetic". O-1 is a pretty simple steel as most go and served the knife community well for many many years without a lot of reported problems. I'm curious and just have to know more than you've alluded to.

Non magnetic is a fairly safe place to be if the heat treater is looking for carbon going into solution and doesn't have a bunch of technical gear in the shop. Going way past non magnetic could be an issue and I don't argue that chromium is an aggressive carbide former, but there are some things we just don't know about how he did it. None of us were there last year when this process started. The business of "not so desirable elements" requires an explanation.

Getting new makers started does not require them to have a bunch of amazing equipment, nor should they be dissuaded from trying without that stuff. Blade makers did just fine for centuries without what we know is available today.

Originally Posted by 10Pups

Thanks for your input JDM61. What's done is done so, what have I done then ? I do know it is possible to file it now were as before the file just slipped across the metal surface. I am going to do some filing on the tang ( a little more detail refining) and then heat treat and temper. Probably with a new oven.
From what I understand I can then final grind and hone it up.

You can heat to non magnetic and then cover in vermiculite or ashes. As far as I understand, you can't do anything wrong with that. Regardless of whether you use molten salt, ashes, vermiculite or something else, annealing means cooling slow. As long as you didn't overheat, I'd say there is nothing you can do wrong.

I anneal by heating in an iron pipe until everything is orange, and then shutting off the air. Everything will need about 12 hours to cool down from there in the charcoal ashes.

Annealing O1 like you did is what Mike taught me, as well as several other blades smiths I've spoken with, so I'd need to see some serious arguments before accepting that doing it like that would be detrimental to the steel. Until then I'd say you did it the right way. Only, heating to below magnetic first is not that useful. Heat to past non magnetic that will be more useful, then finish like you did.

I see Mike just said the same thing.
Don't worry. If you didn't overheat, you did fine.

This story is actually longer than 1 year. I bought the N.Mills back when I first developed RAD. I started to learn restoring with it and side tracked into that for some time. As the shop grows the clone razor progresses. I want to get a heat treat oven and when I do I will be able to finish the clone and will finish the Mills at about the same time. My first restore and custom in a set sort of thing. Just the way it's all coming about. Should be complete around May. The shop, the razors, then ???

I forgot you started this.
Looking GOOD!