Knife Heat Treating
Heat treating is the combination of several processes including annealing, normalizing, hardening and tempering. Heating the steel and then cooling it makes it harder, so as to maintain an edge, but at the expense of making it more brittle. Different steels are treated to varying hardness' depending on the metals in the alloy and the application of the tool.
Challenges
The challenges faced during the heat treating process vary. Improper treatment can make a blade brittle, impossible to sharpen or too soft to hold an edge. Alloys are designed to resist corrosion but at the expense of making them harder to work with. The ideal treatment is different for different alloys.
Market
The market for handmade utilitarian tools has made a resurgence over the last decade. Though we offer larger kilns that can be used in production for heat treating, the majority of the products we sell for knife-making are to fine craft artists.
Kilns
Because of the size of the work, most blade makers prefer smaller front loading kilns with accurate temperature controls.
