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Main Boards => Hunting Knives and Crafters => Topic started by: ALW on September 11, 2008, 12:26:00 PM
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How long, at what temperature, and how many times to you heat an old file to temper it? I know this is kind of a loaded question.
I made a makeshift forge last week to work on some knives. I annealed a blade I had cut from an old gravely blade and did a small (old) nicholson file at the same time. I finished up the gravely blade knife and heat treated it and tempered it in a toaster oven at about 375 degrees for an hour. It seemed to work out fine and sharpened up good. I hacked on a piece of hickory (seasoned) with it and it still held a pretty good edge.
Now the file softened up really good and I shaped it and beveled the blade. Then I reheated it and quenched it in warmed used motor oil. It hardened back up. Next I put it in the toaster oven at 400 degrees for about an hour and a half. After it cooled I tried to work the bevel a little more and could barely cut it with a file. So I repeated the tempering process again. It seemed to cut a little better but it's still really hard. Any help? I seem to remember seeing a chart on here somewhere with times and temps. for tempering different steels but I can't seem to find it.
Thanks. Aaron
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a file should slide off of a properly hardened blade.
when i do files i cook them at 375 for an hour then let it cool and repeat
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Thanks. Maybe I actually did do it right! LOL... I was just trying to clean some file marks out of the bevel with a newer file and figured it would at least cut enough to smooth them out. But it just about skates off the blade.
Thanks again. Aaron