I messed up three blades in one afternoon. First one came out too soft because my oven thermocouple was off by 50 degrees. Second one cracked right down the middle during quench. Third one warped so bad it looked like a banana. Went through $30 worth of 1084 steel in 4 hours straight. Have you ever had a day where nothing goes right with your forge?
I used to swear by 1095 for all my camp knives, but a maker in Oregon told me straight up that my edge retention was trash because I was overheating the steel during sharpening. He showed me how a cool wet stone and slower passes kept the hardness stable, and now my Mora in 12C27 outcuts my old 1095 blades by a mile. I changed my whole sharpening setup after that, no more belt grinders on high speed. Has anyone else had a smith call out their technique like that?
Last month I was at my uncle's farm outside of Topeka going through my grandpa's old tool chest. Found this beat up Nicholson file he must have used for 40 years. The thing was dull as a brick but the tang had this weird rainbow discoloration on it. I got curious and asked my uncle about it and he said grandpa used to heat up his homemade knife blanks in the wood stove and quench them in a bucket of his own used motor oil. No temperature control, no fancy kiln, just a guess and a prayer. I took that old file home and tried to cut it with a new file I bought last week. The new one just skated right off the surface like glass. So grandpa's trash can heat treat was actually harder than whatever factory process this new file went through. It really made me stop and think about all the hype around controlled soak times and cryo treatments. Has anyone else found something from the old days that just works better than what they tell you to buy now?
I was at the Texas Custom Knife Show last March and watched a maker finish a full bevel on a 4 inch blade with nothing but a file and a homemade jig. Meanwhile my $600 grinder was sitting at home collecting dust because I couldn't get my heat treat right on thin stock. He told me he stopped using powered grinders after he overheated a batch of 1095 and ruined 12 blades in one afternoon. Has anyone else here found that slowing down actually fixed their edge geometry problems?
I have been making knives for about 5 years and always used 1095 for my bushcraft blades. But last month I made two identical knives, one in each steel, and tested them side by side on some oak branches. The 5160 held up way better to chopping without chipping, even though it was a bit softer at 58 HRC. Anyone else find 1095 overrated for hard use or should I adjust my heat treat?
Brought in a knife I ruined on my 1x30 belt sander. Dude just looked at it and said 'you're cooking the edge, let the belt do the work.' He was right. I was pushing way too hard trying to hog off material fast. Now I use lighter pressure and more passes, and my edges come out way cleaner. Anyone else had to unlearn bad habits from watching YouTube knife makers?
I bought this fancy looking set from a mall kiosk, thought I was upgrading from my old steel knives. Now I'm back to using my dad's beat-up carbon steel chef knife and it actually holds an edge way better. Has anyone else gotten burned by overpriced ceramic blades?
I was at a local maker space workshop last Tuesday and a guy there asked me what my soak time was. I told him 5 minutes and he laughed, said for 1/8 inch stock you only need like 90 seconds in the kiln. Tried it on three test blanks and they all came out way harder on the file test. One even rang like a bell when I tapped it on the anvil (which I never heard before). Now I gotta regrind like 8 blades I messed up last month because of my old process. Has anyone else been over-soaking their 1095 and getting soft edges?
I finally managed to heat treat a batch of 1095 to a solid 64 HRC in my backyard forge using a thermocouple and Parks 50 quench oil. But now I'm wondering if that hardness is actually practical for a daily use knife or just a flex for the internet. Some guys say 62 is the sweet spot for edge retention without chipping, but I've seen makers push past 65 for competition stuff. What's your take - would you rather have a 64 hard edge that's a pain to sharpen or a softer blade you can tune up in seconds?
I picked up a Buck 110 and a Mora Companion last year to see which one could handle daily abuse better. The Mora was $15, the Buck was $45, and after 6 months of cutting cardboard and random yard work in my backyard in Boise, the Mora won hands down. The Buck's blade chipped on a dry branch, while the Mora just needed a quick strop and kept going. Anyone else find that price doesn't match performance with these two?