Thread: My first forge/ attempt at making a razor

Originally Posted by wynndow

O1 makes great blades but if not HTed properly it you can end up with a blade that's not as good as it should be.

Possibly. But otoh O1 is very easy to do, and if you are not paranoid about getting half point rockwell hardness predictability, it is pretty much foolproof.

Thanks for letting me know that's probably what I'll do. Now witch way do you winch the 01 also do you have to quench frequently, or just when it's done, or if you don't get finished one day do you quench and then work on it later then quench when you are done, or is it like a every so many soaks type thing? That's my biggest question about forging
Also when tempering what's the degree-color to heat to? Thanks everyone for your help/info/ideas.

Here is the usual process.

- forge to shape
- anneal
- grind / file
- heat treatment (quenching)
- tempering (straw color)
- more grinding / sanding / polishing

If you only do stock removal, the bar will already be fully annealed and you can start grinding and filing immediately. If you forge, than the workpiece will be partially hardened because of the deformation and heating cycles. so then you need to anneal before doing the filing and preliminary grinding. Leve at least 1/16 of thickness near the edge before heat treatment, or you will risk warping or decarburizing the blade.

Originally Posted by Bruno

Possibly. But otoh O1 is very easy to do, and if you are not paranoid about getting half point rockwell hardness predictability, it is pretty much foolproof.

Not to diverge from the topic and get into a metallurgy argument but I'll have to respectfully disagree. O1 can easily be overheated which cause grain growth blah blah blah. Its best done in a controlled environment so you can get the proper temperature and soak time.

As far as the quenching goes which if I understand what your asking you don't quench the blade throughout the process. The quenching is when you have the blade ready to be heat treated. The quenching is what makes the steel hard.

Bruno has the outline of the process above.

Ok thank you