Quote Originally Posted by Substance View Post
Gday mate what was your heat treatment and tempering process used ?
From my research, I think it's a safe bet to say that the steel is as you said and W2. for the heat treat I dont have any digital thermometers or anything so I just had to darken my shed as much as possible. I tried to use low heat and gas rich fire in my little home made gas forge by adjusting the air and gas around till I got what I wanted. Got the steel up to an even colour and held it there for a few minutes carefully and then checked to see that it was non-magnetic. Once it was I returned it to the heat to regain the same colour I had previously and then quenched it in some veggie oil.
For the quech, I just used a low cost veggie oil from the supermarket that I preheated by quenching another piece of metal in before quenching the knife.
While the knife was still warm after the quench I tempered it in the oven at I think was either 200 or 220C for about an hour.

It's about 1/32 behind the edge now so unless I used clay, I dont know if I could re-do the hardening without having anything hankie happening.