Thread: Forged razor out of 1084 not performing as well as I hoped trying to figure out why

I use wolf jaw tongs for forging, and a simple flat tongs for HT handling.
If the jaws are close enough, you only need to grip hard to get a solid grip.

I just use unlined leather gloves...yes, I am that tough!

once again, I'm late to the party. I just skimmed through the above stuff. Here are some things that might be helpful:

1. Design the razor for a 16 degree included angle, at a minimum. Up to 18 degrees is fine.

2. Leave the edge at least 0.030 thick before heat treatment.

3. Put blade in preheated kiln. For 1084, soak the blade for 5 minutes at temperature.

4. Quench - one smooth motion from kiln to quench. If using oil, rapidly agitate the blade from edge to spine. You only have 0.5 seconds to get below 1000F, once the blade hits the oil. Interrupt quench at about 400F. Cool to room temperature in air.

5. Temper immediately at 330F. Don't wait for your kiln. Get a deep fat fryer at Walmart. Don't trust the control knob, get a good thermometer.

6. Hardness chisels are not very reliable. They also include abrasion resistance and operator bias in the readings.

7. You will have 0.005" - 0.010" decarb when using an open air kiln. Plan for that.

I hope this helps.

Late to the party as well.

A couple of points that may or may not have been covered in the preceding post.

What is your quench oil? 1084 requires a fairly fast quench, you can get by with Canola or peanut oil, but something like Park's 50 would be better.
A way to get a toaster oven fairly even is to put a 1/4" thick or so plate in the bottom, nothing special, just a large chunk that will fit. It will help even out the oven cycling temps for a more even temper. I also let the toaster oven run for a while before use, about a half hour or so to let the temp stabilize and to be sure I'm at the rite temp.

As an aside, I've only made a couple of razors, but the one I did out of damascus, 1084 and 15&20, while it works well, doesn't have the edge retention of the ones I've done from higher alloy steels like 52100. Just means I have to touch the edge up a bit more often than others.