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i have a piece of tool steel that im making a big razor with, and it will be a wedge with a top of 3/8 inch wide and a hieght of 2 inches. my question is, when im grinding out the wedge, how thin can i get it at the bottom without it warping during heat treatment
Height of 2", as in 16/8?
You should have at least 1/16th thickness left if you want to be reasonably safe.
yes justinA,.... 16/8
+1 Heat treatment of steel is a violent and dynamic process. The potential for movement of the steel (curve or warp or twist) always haunts the blade maker no matter how well planned to prevent it. Leave a thick enough edge that if you do get a little warpage you can see a straight line down the middle.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruno
There are already a great many techniques discussed here for correcting warps on hones during restoration. The process on a new razor from new stock would be identical. You will have to remove some superficial material to polish the razor after heat treatment as there are always oxides of some kind. It means you have to be careful to grind/polish away that along with the excess edge material and keep the blade cool so as to not ruin the heat treatment. Thin steel heats very quickly.
Look forward to the mistakes. They are the best teachers. As you gain experience, you may find you can reduce the edge thickness to less than a sixteenth, but it's a safe place to begin.
thanks mike. i was wondering if it was possible to rig a frame that would hold the blade and keep it from bending. also, is their an optimal way to quench it, ie, blade side going in first, tang side? or straight down from the front
That is possible, but as a consequence, the part that is covered by the frame would not be hardened.
Gilette thought of the same thing to prevent his DE blades from warping. But DEs don't have a spine or a big body.
If the spine is softer than the edge, it will wear faster too.
Besides, there is still the possibility that the spine or entire blade will warp ever so slightly. It is a big chunk of steel. If that is contracting asymmetrically, no simple jig will keep it straight. Now, it won't warp overly much, but if you've already ground it very thin, it is possible that you don't have enough material left to grind a straight edge out of.
I just plunge them in toe end first. One quick move. Most of the jigs or frames I'm aware of, are for steels that are air cooled or have a much longer time available between the austenitizing/critical temperature and the quench.
O-1 for example gives you about two seconds to get from the heat to the quench and then below 1000 F to start to have the potential to form martensite and below 325 F for 100% martensite. Beating the nose of the curve is the most critical component. See here: Steels and scroll down to see the TTT diagram for O-1. Once you're past 1000 F you have a nice relatively leisurely amount of time to drop to 325 F. But those first two seconds are important.