ive successfully heat treated about 2 dozen knives made from 1095 using a method very similar to this. half of them were done in a homemade bucket forge and the rest from the lid of a stainless steel gas grill that i modified with some fire bricks and refractory cement. i can give a few pointers that might save some people from making bad decisions. Mr. Sorrells covered just about everything here, but i would definitely recommend giving yourself plenty of room in (or on) whatever surface your using. for example in my little bucket forge it was just too small and the bottom was way hotter than the top so i ruined a few knives because the tips got so hot they melted. secondly, regular charcoal works just fine if you cant find the lump or whatever. actually i prefer it because the natural stuff sends up huge amounts of embers that can land on something and easily catch it on fire without you knowing. the briquettes get plenty hot to heat treat simple high carbon steel. but the hairdryer is a MUST. it will not get nearly hot enough without it. ive used hair dryers as well as the little pumps that come with some air mattresses. also, hes very correct about the hardness once you quench it. be very, very careful with it until it is fully tempered!!! i cannot stress this enough because i have accidentally dropped two knifes on my way to the temper oven that shattered. if you get warps or anything else, then heat it back up before you start messing around with it because it will most likely break if you dont. also, its a good idea to inspect the blade thoroughly before heat treating because if it has any warps or flaws already, then its very probable that it will cause some serious damage during the quench. ive had warps, splits, breaks, cracks. as soon as you dunk it in the oil be very still and listen for just a moment. if you hear something that sounds like TING!! then you blew it. if you hear nothing and feel nothing, then chances are you probably didnt ruin it. when im using very thin steel i will only do a basic grind on the blade before treating it because the thinner it is the bigger chance it has to mess up during this stage. with thicker steel you dont have to worry so much about cracking or breaking, but depending on the size you can still get some serious warps. also, always do the file test!!!! there is nothing worse than going through the whole process of making the knife, heat treating, putting on handle scales, profiling, fit and finish, sharpening, etc. only to have the edge completely roll over the first time you use it because it wasnt hardened like you thought it was. so always test it!! if you test it immediately after quenching it and it isnt hard, then you can just do it again until you get it right. but if you wait until youre completely finished with it then you dont have very many options at that point (other than maybe using a torch to do a differential hardening). for tempering i just use my toaster oven. he mentioned the amount of scale on the blade after heat treating and that is something that you need to consider beforehand. dont waste time getting the blade perfect before heat treating it because you will need to grind off the scale. so if you spend the time to get a great satin finish on it with perfect bevels, then youre probably going to be disappointed once you pull the blade out of the oil. hope this saves at least one future blade.
Thanks, i have 1.5 mm thick steel with shaped bevels (so ultra thin) is it sure im going to be disapointed? I tried once and blade cracked and warped, but it was 1.2 mm china steel
Walter, I recently started watching your videos in a seemingly religious way. You are doing something that no other is at the moment. You are actually educating us beginners with our common man tools, and giving us a rough taste of the theory involved. and your whit makes it entertaining. Thank you very much, and please keep making these videos.
The forge that I've used for years uses a cheapo hair dryer that I found for 10$ at Walmart. With a few fire bricks, a stainless box and a length of black steel pipe, I built my forge for roughly 30$ over a weekend. The Charcoal forge is by far the simplest forge to build and obtain all the parts for.
Walter, thanks for taking the time to educate those of us who want to hobby build without spending thousands on tools we won't use enough to justify the $$$. Any chance of you doing a karambit in the future?
+Autistic Fingoloid maybe we study Kali and want to learn how to forge and grind our own custom weaponry. Next time keep your comments on the same intelligence level as Walters teaching. Thanks!
today I actually welded a small billet about 2 inches long,1 in wide,3 inches thick using only charcoal and bellows in a brake drum forge my first time,I also heat treat katana blades up to 34 inches long using only charcoal and bellows for air.I live in Tanzania,ur tips have been of much use Walter Sorrels thanks for sharing
bro you show difficult things as easy as a breeze... you are the real pro of this job. Admirations, kudos and all due respect and greetings from Alanya-Turkey :)
Another way to temper the blade with a fire is to heat another piece of metal and lay the spine of the blade on it. The heat transfers through the spine and should leave the edge harder.
+Colson Customs Thats also the way I learned it at a knife maker (in a 2 days workshop). I also can imagine its more evenly heatet that way and its much easier to see the actual color of the blade while heating it.
+Colson Customs I can't post the link to it apparently, but if you search for "Blade_Forger.wmv www.taliesinpewter.co.uk" and go to about 8:30 it shows this beautifully. Great video to watch if you've got a little time.
I'm making a shake out of a leaf spring using a similar method, but instead of an open pit, I'm using a discarded oil barrel. It works better than one may think for getting the steel up to temp...and you can tune the vent holes at the bottom to draw a vortex of air, to get it really hot, and cut slots at different heights from the coals to get a rough temperature difference. Its a good method for those without the proper equipment.
If you don’t have a hair dryer, you can use a bellows. If you don’t have a bellows, you can use a large fan (the non-electric kind you wave with your hand). If you don’t have a fan, you can get several sturdy friends to blow through tubes (hollow reeds, for example). If you don’t have friends (after you roped them into your last project), get to work making a bellows.
Walter, I wish that you had done this one last week I just did a blade yesterday in a similar way, had to do it 3 times to get it all treated, first 2 times I did not get the tip on a machete hot enough and it was soft, I ended up using charcoal and some coal that I had in a trench with a hair dryer taped to a pipe with holes drilled in the top side placed in the bottom of it to get enough heat to get the whole blade up to temp :) thanks for the great information
Awesome, Thank you Mr. Sorrells. I think I have a pretty comprehensive guide to start my own bladecraft. I appreciate your knowledge and expertise, and never before have I had such confidence in crafting my own steel.
Thank you Walter, sustainable, simple and worthwhile. We use our rocket stove style heater, wood fired, 45 min to glowing same color as embers(orange) quenching in cold alkaline water for best results. Water is super infused Borax and Epsom salts best result when solution near freezing. Wonderful hardness. Charcoal is old world and ok by me. Thank you and aloha
Mr Walter, thanks for all the videos ,I'M trying to be a knifemaker,and your videos helpes me everytime, now making my beltgrinder and forge,Thanks again from Rio Grande Tierra del fuego Argentina
i used a pit forge, dug into the ground with a shopvac blowing air into the bottom through a vent tunnel. I was only using wood, but I threw a bunch in there and the fire was ROARING out the top. I didn't know it at the time, but the fire was hot enough to melt the tip of my blade and it turned bright yellow hot. long story short, My knife is now about two inches shorter. I might just restart the blade, but do it more patiently this time.
I find all the hair dryer jokes hilarious... I recently got one and found it to be one of the most useful tools I own. As long as you are careful not to overheat, you can use it for a thousand tasks: Making sure washed kit is totally dry before stowing it in your pack, warming up the inside of your boots when you've treated them, softening Kydex to reshape a sheath..... its almost embarrassing how useful a hairdryer is.
Walter, just started getting into this project. Your videos are really informative and easily understood. Thanks for the knowledge and i look forward to my ens product.
today I actually welded a small billet about 2 inches long,1 in wide,3 inches thick using only charcoal and bellows in a brake drum forge, my first time,I also heat treat katana blades up to 34 inches long using only charcoal and bellows for air
For anyone wondering if you have a medium carbon steel (like a non name brand file) you must simply quench it in water or ice water if its a low/med steel like a railroad spike or something about .3-.4 carbon and move it around so a steam jacket doesn't form, this will work with home depot weld steel, but it wont be hard or tough, it will just be a bit springier than usual
You really do have that natural knack for teaching. Thank you so much for your videos. The 3 videos I've watched so far answered so many questions I had before trying my hand at making a blade. Invaluable info here. Will definitely be hitting your patreon as a thank you!
I did actually get the temperature up with charcoal briquettes like Sorrells says may work, but then when I switched to hardwood charcoal without realising they weren't the same the difference was significant. There must have been something like a 200 degree difference, and less ash.
Thanks Walter! I learn something from you every time because you explain your actions, example: ..Swirl the blade around in the oil to dissipate heart faster... That is why I subscribed; Go Clemson!!!
Great video, sir. I've been watching different video on how to learn tempuring, heat treating, quenching, the basics. This video is hands down the the easiest to understand and base knowledge upon. Everything that I wanted to know was found on this video. left a like for ya ;D. I enjoy how much you explain things in a easy but progressive manner. You kept A LOT of the filler out, which as a viewer, bugs the hell out of me. I will be subscribing for sure 👍🗡
you can use the typical backyard briquettes but you must make a more enclosed furnace, preferably something with a lid to retain the heat. try making a forge from fire bricks or use grant Thompsons video on the mini metal foundry and use that as a forge, i use it and it works fine
Man I would love it, and probably a lot of others too, if you would do that video on heat treating theory. Especially if you talked about normalizing and annealing too. Those are the kind of subjects that get all muddied up in schientific text that a normal guy like me has a bit of trouble with getting their head around.
Hi Walter, I'm a new knife maker. Got into it about 2 months ago. I am a lover of knives. I have a small man cave/workshop which affords me enough space for the equipment I need to get started. I have a couple of books and have enjoyed watching knifemakers on youtube. My question is, can I get a decent knife from a 1x30 belt sander? Question two, freehand or jig?
Japanese people have made swords with wood forever. But for someone without the experience it helps getting a laser thermometer to get the temperature of the blade if you can’t identify it just by the glow of it
I redo charcoal case hardening on those Italian reproduction guns of the old west, all the time. It wears off very easily compared to real case hardening. My staple charcoal starter stock is mesquite lump charcoal, mixed with my own home made charcoals, using fruit woods, and any other hard woods I can lay my hands on. I want either that plumb and brown mottling or that colorful peacock with the purples, blues, browns, yellows, and rose coloring. KINGSFORD IS SAWDUST, CLAY, GRAVEL AND DIRT PRESSED INTO LITTLE CARBON BISCUITS, AND IT'S MOSTLY CLAY, DIRT AND GRAVEL. Diablo makes a nice mesquite charcoal that lasts, but mesquite is kind of an acacia type wood.
Is there any chance you'll ever do a video for us on clay tempering? What mixture, and how to? Also, how, or did the Japanese sword makers temper their swords after the quench? That's something I've never heard about or seen in a video of a quench, thank you Walter.
+Shane K I've got two videos on the whole clay quenching subject (one on forging generally, and the other on hamons specifically) available on my web site www.waltersorrellsblades.com. As far asJapanese sword makers tempering their swords, it's actually typically done somewhat like I do it here -- in other words it's a fairly rapid treatment that might be more what modern metallurgists would call stress relief than the sort of hour-in-an-oven approach that's more typical of modern edge tool makers.
Hey I have some tips for charcoal heat treating ! First, I've melted 1084 with this method , but I was useing a shop vac for my air supply , I eventually figured out that most shop vacs are TOO POWERFUL! mine made mire spit and burn away so quick so fast I didn't have time to refuel it . But I did melt 1.5 inches off the tip of one of my blades .
Ive only made a couple knives, but when I decided to make one I was stumped on how to heat treat. I sat around my wood stove for a couple hours thinking the best way to move forward. Felt pretty dumb when I thought of the solution
Those things won't just melt steel, they'll burn through it like an acetylene torch if you're not careful and get too close to the oxygen supply. My early works mostly ended that way, with a gaping hole in the middle of it. At least it was free leaf springs I got from a nearby garage :P Only the charcoal was wasted.
how do I put somewhat of a hard edge on a knife with a blow torch, canola oil and a toaster oven? heat the metal until it’s red hot, stick it in the oil, wait til it cools, then put it in the toaster at 425 for an hour, then shine it and sharpen it. will that work ok? do i have that right? is it good enough for a cheese knife? i just want to make a few knives for myself and family, with somewhat of a hardened edge so it will stay sharp for a while. i’ll make these knives with old carbide saw blades or some steel hanging around in my shed. thank you in advance for your response :)
First off, Walter, i love your videos. Im also getting confused. I was going to start using O1 tool steel, but read a lot of people saying 1084 is much easier to heat treat at home, and best to leave the 01 to professionals for heat treating. You say both steels use the same method. Anyone care to chime in? Id like to use the 01 over the 1084, but unsure if i can without an electrically controlled kiln.
Walter, where I live there aren't a lot of different kinds of steels to choose from... What I got is 420 stainless steel. I've already made my first knife and """""heat treated""""" it and I know that I failed on it... I've looked up for and found that it CAN be heat treated (around 1000 Cº). My question is, can i reach that temperature and successfully heat treat 420 steel using charcoal? Hope you can get back to me with some help! Thanks!
I noticed you are wearing the purple filters on the respirator. Are those the full cross-spectrum gas filters with particulate filters built in? They are basically the civilian equivalent of a military NBC filter right? May I ask why you chose them?
Usually when you temper a simple carbon steel knife, you put it in an oven at 400 for about 2 hours... with this technique, is the blade tempered once it has reached that yellow colour? Or do you need to hold it at that temperature for a certain amount of time?
Hey Walter, i often find that the lower center of a regular campfire gets pretty damn hot, I buried the knife under the hot bed and it got bright red within minutes. How reliable would you say this is? I mean, it just saves me money on coal really
Walter I tried heat treat my blade and think I may have not got it right. Parts seem hard while other gets bite from the file. Put it back on the coals tries again but still has the same issue. How many times can I heat treat the same blade
ive successfully heat treated about 2 dozen knives made from 1095 using a method very similar to this. half of them were done in a homemade bucket forge and the rest from the lid of a stainless steel gas grill that i modified with some fire bricks and refractory cement. i can give a few pointers that might save some people from making bad decisions. Mr. Sorrells covered just about everything here, but i would definitely recommend giving yourself plenty of room in (or on) whatever surface your using. for example in my little bucket forge it was just too small and the bottom was way hotter than the top so i ruined a few knives because the tips got so hot they melted. secondly, regular charcoal works just fine if you cant find the lump or whatever. actually i prefer it because the natural stuff sends up huge amounts of embers that can land on something and easily catch it on fire without you knowing. the briquettes get plenty hot to heat treat simple high carbon steel. but the hairdryer is a MUST. it will not get nearly hot enough without it. ive used hair dryers as well as the little pumps that come with some air mattresses.
also, hes very correct about the hardness once you quench it. be very, very careful with it until it is fully tempered!!! i cannot stress this enough because i have accidentally dropped two knifes on my way to the temper oven that shattered. if you get warps or anything else, then heat it back up before you start messing around with it because it will most likely break if you dont. also, its a good idea to inspect the blade thoroughly before heat treating because if it has any warps or flaws already, then its very probable that it will cause some serious damage during the quench. ive had warps, splits, breaks, cracks. as soon as you dunk it in the oil be very still and listen for just a moment. if you hear something that sounds like TING!! then you blew it. if you hear nothing and feel nothing, then chances are you probably didnt ruin it. when im using very thin steel i will only do a basic grind on the blade before treating it because the thinner it is the bigger chance it has to mess up during this stage. with thicker steel you dont have to worry so much about cracking or breaking, but depending on the size you can still get some serious warps.
also, always do the file test!!!! there is nothing worse than going through the whole process of making the knife, heat treating, putting on handle scales, profiling, fit and finish, sharpening, etc. only to have the edge completely roll over the first time you use it because it wasnt hardened like you thought it was. so always test it!! if you test it immediately after quenching it and it isnt hard, then you can just do it again until you get it right. but if you wait until youre completely finished with it then you dont have very many options at that point (other than maybe using a torch to do a differential hardening).
for tempering i just use my toaster oven. he mentioned the amount of scale on the blade after heat treating and that is something that you need to consider beforehand. dont waste time getting the blade perfect before heat treating it because you will need to grind off the scale. so if you spend the time to get a great satin finish on it with perfect bevels, then youre probably going to be disappointed once you pull the blade out of the oil.
hope this saves at least one future blade.
Thanks, i have 1.5 mm thick steel with shaped bevels (so ultra thin) is it sure im going to be disapointed? I tried once and blade cracked and warped, but it was 1.2 mm china steel
Walter, I recently started watching your videos in a seemingly religious way.
You are doing something that no other is at the moment. You are actually educating us beginners with our common man tools, and giving us a rough taste of the theory involved.
and your whit makes it entertaining. Thank you very much, and please keep making these videos.
The forge that I've used for years uses a cheapo hair dryer that I found for 10$ at Walmart. With a few fire bricks, a stainless box and a length of black steel pipe, I built my forge for roughly 30$ over a weekend. The Charcoal forge is by far the simplest forge to build and obtain all the parts for.
Walter, thanks for taking the time to educate those of us who want to hobby build without spending thousands on tools we won't use enough to justify the $$$. Any chance of you doing a karambit in the future?
+Timothy Padilla People keep asking me to do one...so I guess I better get on it! Maybe in a month or two...
+Walter Sorrells lol counter strike fans getting to you?
+Walter Sorrells Hi Walter i see you've made a few Japanese swords, have you ever considered making a European longsword or maybe a Roman gladius?
+Autistic Fingoloid maybe we study Kali and want to learn how to forge and grind our own custom weaponry. Next time keep your comments on the same intelligence level as Walters teaching. Thanks!
+Walter Sorrells I'm actually working on a low tech karambit right now so it would be especially awesome to see how bad I'm screwing it up.
today I actually welded a small billet about 2 inches long,1 in wide,3 inches thick using only charcoal and bellows in a brake drum forge
my first time,I also heat treat katana blades up to 34 inches long using only charcoal and bellows for air.I live in Tanzania,ur tips have been of much use Walter Sorrels thanks for sharing
bro you show difficult things as easy as a breeze... you are the real pro of this job. Admirations, kudos and all due respect and greetings from Alanya-Turkey :)
Another way to temper the blade with a fire is to heat another piece of metal and lay the spine of the blade on it. The heat transfers through the spine and should leave the edge harder.
I knew a guy that had an big antique bar of copper with a handle on it and he said it was a tool designed for tempering like that.
+Colson Customs Thats also the way I learned it at a knife maker (in a 2 days workshop). I also can imagine its more evenly heatet that way and its much easier to see the actual color of the blade while heating it.
+Colson Customs I can't post the link to it apparently, but if you search for "Blade_Forger.wmv www.taliesinpewter.co.uk" and go to about 8:30 it shows this beautifully. Great video to watch if you've got a little time.
diamondflaw
That's a neat video.
the video your talking about is really neat. The knife he made at 12:21 is pretty awesome, i want to make one.
I'm making a shake out of a leaf spring using a similar method, but instead of an open pit, I'm using a discarded oil barrel. It works better than one may think for getting the steel up to temp...and you can tune the vent holes at the bottom to draw a vortex of air, to get it really hot, and cut slots at different heights from the coals to get a rough temperature difference.
Its a good method for those without the proper equipment.
If you don’t have a hair dryer, you can use a bellows. If you don’t have a bellows, you can use a large fan (the non-electric kind you wave with your hand). If you don’t have a fan, you can get several sturdy friends to blow through tubes (hollow reeds, for example). If you don’t have friends (after you roped them into your last project), get to work making a bellows.
She bought me a beautiful set of bellows for Xmas. Can't tell you how much I love it.
Walter, I wish that you had done this one last week I just did a blade yesterday in a similar way, had to do it 3 times to get it all treated, first 2 times I did not get the tip on a machete hot enough and it was soft, I ended up using charcoal and some coal that I had in a trench with a hair dryer taped to a pipe with holes drilled in the top side placed in the bottom of it to get enough heat to get the whole blade up to temp :) thanks for the great information
Thank you for doing a basic video like this in 2015 it's still awesome to learn this stuff !!
This is very helpful to me as I'm new learner
Awesome, Thank you Mr. Sorrells. I think I have a pretty comprehensive guide to start my own bladecraft. I appreciate your knowledge and expertise, and never before have I had such confidence in crafting my own steel.
This is what Im looking for. Cause I don't have much equipment and an oven to use. Ty for this video.
Thank you Walter, sustainable, simple and worthwhile. We use our rocket stove style heater, wood fired, 45 min to glowing same color as embers(orange) quenching in cold alkaline water for best results. Water is super infused Borax and Epsom salts best result when solution near freezing. Wonderful hardness. Charcoal is old world and ok by me. Thank you and aloha
Mr Walter, thanks for all the videos ,I'M trying to be a knifemaker,and your videos helpes me everytime, now making my beltgrinder and forge,Thanks again
from Rio Grande Tierra del fuego Argentina
i used a pit forge, dug into the ground with a shopvac blowing air into the bottom through a vent tunnel. I was only using wood, but I threw a bunch in there and the fire was ROARING out the top. I didn't know it at the time, but the fire was hot enough to melt the tip of my blade and it turned bright yellow hot. long story short, My knife is now about two inches shorter. I might just restart the blade, but do it more patiently this time.
i recently started blacksmithing and this video was very helpful. thank you
thanks for the video Walter!! quenching and tempering was the last thing I needed to go over. this will be my first time forging a knife. thank you!
heat treated and tampered my first knife using your vid as reference... thanks a bunch 👍🏻
I find all the hair dryer jokes hilarious... I recently got one and found it to be one of the most useful tools I own. As long as you are careful not to overheat, you can use it for a thousand tasks: Making sure washed kit is totally dry before stowing it in your pack, warming up the inside of your boots when you've treated them, softening Kydex to reshape a sheath..... its almost embarrassing how useful a hairdryer is.
You have an understanding wife.. did you promise a new hair dryer?
I was thinking that part of the video should of came with a safety warning.
My wife has about 12 hair dryers. She probably wouldn’t miss one ...
Gary Cooper -
PROBABLY.
Hey, I mean, if it was for getting hard, than whatever!
Awesome info, for the back yard knife makers, your info videos have help me improve,thank you Buddy
You have the best teaching videos I seen.
i like Walter's humor
Walter, just started getting into this project. Your videos are really informative and easily understood. Thanks for the knowledge and i look forward to my ens product.
heat treatment helped me get rid of rust
This channel is actually amazing.
Amazing video.
Sir, I just wanted to say thanks for making the videos! I have watched several and you are an excellent teacher! Keep up the good work!
today I actually welded a small billet about 2 inches long,1 in wide,3 inches thick using only charcoal and bellows in a brake drum forge,
my first time,I also heat treat katana blades up to 34 inches long using only charcoal and bellows for air
Great videos Walter.
For anyone wondering if you have a medium carbon steel (like a non name brand file) you must simply quench it in water or ice water if its a low/med steel like a railroad spike or something about .3-.4 carbon and move it around so a steam jacket doesn't form, this will work with home depot weld steel, but it wont be hard or tough, it will just be a bit springier than usual
You really do have that natural knack for teaching. Thank you so much for your videos. The 3 videos I've watched so far answered so many questions I had before trying my hand at making a blade. Invaluable info here. Will definitely be hitting your patreon as a thank you!
I did actually get the temperature up with charcoal briquettes like Sorrells says may work, but then when I switched to hardwood charcoal without realising they weren't the same the difference was significant. There must have been something like a 200 degree difference, and less ash.
Thanks Walter! I learn something from you every time because you explain your actions, example: ..Swirl the blade around in the oil to dissipate heart faster... That is why I subscribed; Go Clemson!!!
Great video, sir. I've been watching different video on how to learn tempuring, heat treating, quenching, the basics. This video is hands down the the easiest to understand and base knowledge upon. Everything that I wanted to know was found on this video. left a like for ya ;D. I enjoy how much you explain things in a easy but progressive manner. You kept A LOT of the filler out, which as a viewer, bugs the hell out of me. I will be subscribing for sure 👍🗡
Walter, you are an educator!
great stuff! i heat treated my first knife yesterday using the info from this video
How did it go?
Nice backyard
Thank you
you can use the typical backyard briquettes but you must make a more enclosed furnace, preferably something with a lid to retain the heat. try making a forge from fire bricks or use grant Thompsons video on the mini metal foundry and use that as a forge, i use it and it works fine
Tim Livley has the best example of a knife makers forge for burning Charcoal .
Thank you sir!
Man I would love it, and probably a lot of others too, if you would do that video on heat treating theory. Especially if you talked about normalizing and annealing too. Those are the kind of subjects that get all muddied up in schientific text that a normal guy like me has a bit of trouble with getting their head around.
Walter video was great! this was how I was planning on heating my first knife.
Excellent video thanks Walter :)
Walter: oxygen is the one behind the fire, ME: sprays a full tank of pure oxygen. The fire: EXPLOSION 💥
I waited for the video and it was good that I waited thank you Walter for these great video's. You help me very much.
Best explanation in youtube !!! Thank u walter.
Thank you you are the best.
Very nice
Make it hot, them make it cold really fast. -Arbiter Customs
Hi Walter, I'm a new knife maker. Got into it about 2 months ago. I am a lover of knives. I have a small man cave/workshop which affords me enough space for the equipment I need to get started. I have a couple of books and have enjoyed watching knifemakers on youtube. My question is, can I get a decent knife from a 1x30 belt sander? Question two, freehand or jig?
Japanese people have made swords with wood forever. But for someone without the experience it helps getting a laser thermometer to get the temperature of the blade if you can’t identify it just by the glow of it
Thanks so much for making this
Awesome vid
My first forge was just a pit dug in the ground and a hairdryer...I've made a Japanese box bellows now.
Man your voice is awesome
Hey this was amazing im making a new forge and this will work until i get the other one done thanks
Thanks! You have a great voice
i have some mystery steel id like to make arrowheads with i know it hardens when clenched in water and has a very crystalline looking grain
blacksmoth depot currently has the best deal on 1075/1080 steel and it comes free of forge scale.
well explained sir tnx..
Will this work as well with 1095 high carbon steel?
Just what I was looking for. Thanks Walter. :)
I'm not aloud to touch her hair drier any more after I burned up the motor on her old one . very cool video
great video. Helped me out alot.
walter, were you hungry when making this video? you mentioned burgers a lot...
thanks very well explained!
I redo charcoal case hardening on those Italian reproduction guns of the old west, all the time. It wears off very easily compared to real case hardening. My staple charcoal starter stock is mesquite lump charcoal, mixed with my own home made charcoals, using fruit woods, and any other hard woods I can lay my hands on. I want either that plumb and brown mottling or that colorful peacock with the purples, blues, browns, yellows, and rose coloring. KINGSFORD IS SAWDUST, CLAY, GRAVEL AND DIRT PRESSED INTO LITTLE CARBON BISCUITS, AND IT'S MOSTLY CLAY, DIRT AND GRAVEL. Diablo makes a nice mesquite charcoal that lasts, but mesquite is kind of an acacia type wood.
Really great video.exellent tutorial.
Is there any chance you'll ever do a video for us on clay tempering? What mixture, and how to? Also, how, or did the Japanese sword makers temper their swords after the quench? That's something I've never heard about or seen in a video of a quench, thank you Walter.
+Shane K I've got two videos on the whole clay quenching subject (one on forging generally, and the other on hamons specifically) available on my web site www.waltersorrellsblades.com. As far asJapanese sword makers tempering their swords, it's actually typically done somewhat like I do it here -- in other words it's a fairly rapid treatment that might be more what modern metallurgists would call stress relief than the sort of hour-in-an-oven approach that's more typical of modern edge tool makers.
Hey I have some tips for charcoal heat treating ! First, I've melted 1084 with this method , but I was useing a shop vac for my air supply , I eventually figured out that most shop vacs are TOO POWERFUL! mine made mire spit and burn away so quick so fast I didn't have time to refuel it . But I did melt 1.5 inches off the tip of one of my blades .
As always great post - Love your sense of humor!!! I suspect there is some kind of character under there!
Why do you use water on your anvil? Does the hot metal produce a layer of steam, that insulates the hot metal from the (relatively) cold anvil?
+Andre Gross I believe it's a Japanese forging technique to remove the scales that forms as you hammer the piece.
I had actually researched it after posting that. You are correct, and it also helps purify the surface of the steel. Thanks!
It is to blast off the scale
Useful video . Thanks you !
Good video...but im not sure how to temper after heat treating... How high will be the degree of
Can you make a video on how to make a leather knife sheath
Ive only made a couple knives, but when I decided to make one I was stumped on how to heat treat. I sat around my wood stove for a couple hours thinking the best way to move forward. Felt pretty dumb when I thought of the solution
wow you rock! just love your info, videos, you have helped me learn many things, Thank You
Those things won't just melt steel, they'll burn through it like an acetylene torch if you're not careful and get too close to the oxygen supply. My early works mostly ended that way, with a gaping hole in the middle of it. At least it was free leaf springs I got from a nearby garage :P Only the charcoal was wasted.
and DO NOT drop a hardened knife it leads to sadness
does it shatter?
sometimes it could also crack it and ruin your work regardless
Hawk_ Eye it literally shatters. Carbon steel only though
Thanks for the tips :D
i´ll make a knife like that looks simple and cool
how do I put somewhat of a hard edge on a knife with a blow torch, canola oil and a toaster oven?
heat the metal until it’s red hot, stick it in the oil, wait til it cools, then put it in the toaster at 425 for an hour, then shine it and sharpen it.
will that work ok?
do i have that right?
is it good enough for a cheese knife?
i just want to make a few knives for myself and family, with somewhat of a hardened edge so it will stay sharp for a while.
i’ll make these knives with old carbide saw blades or some steel hanging around in my shed.
thank you in advance for your response :)
First off, Walter, i love your videos. Im also getting confused. I was going to start using O1 tool steel, but read a lot of people saying 1084 is much easier to heat treat at home, and best to leave the 01 to professionals for heat treating. You say both steels use the same method. Anyone care to chime in? Id like to use the 01 over the 1084, but unsure if i can without an electrically controlled kiln.
Walter, where I live there aren't a lot of different kinds of steels to choose from... What I got is 420 stainless steel. I've already made my first knife and """""heat treated""""" it and I know that I failed on it... I've looked up for and found that it CAN be heat treated (around 1000 Cº). My question is, can i reach that temperature and successfully heat treat 420 steel using charcoal?
Hope you can get back to me with some help! Thanks!
I noticed you are wearing the purple filters on the respirator. Are those the full cross-spectrum gas filters with particulate filters built in? They are basically the civilian equivalent of a military NBC filter right? May I ask why you chose them?
Other replacement on black pipe.? Cant find a black pipe where im in.
So, no quench on the temper?. Just get it to the straw color and let it cool on its own?
well you can do the temper quite easily in a conventional or even toaster oven.
Usually when you temper a simple carbon steel knife, you put it in an oven at 400 for about 2 hours... with this technique, is the blade tempered once it has reached that yellow colour? Or do you need to hold it at that temperature for a certain amount of time?
Hey Walter, i often find that the lower center of a regular campfire gets pretty damn hot, I buried the knife under the hot bed and it got bright red within minutes. How reliable would you say this is? I mean, it just saves me money on coal really
Walter I tried heat treat my blade and think I may have not got it right. Parts seem hard while other gets bite from the file. Put it back on the coals tries again but still has the same issue. How many times can I heat treat the same blade
tnx i've just did it in my fire place
Can you youse wood as wel to heat
"nearly melt"?! Walter, I've melted 1095 in a small charcoal forge.
what kind of steel is the steel used for rifle targets?