Finally nailed my heat treat after 3 failed knife blanks

I kept getting soft edges on my 1095 blades until I read about holding at temp for an extra 4 minutes in the forge. Anyone else find their specific oven or forge needs a weird soak time adjustment?

3 comments

3 Comments

hugotaylor17d ago

and here i was proud of myself for just not burning the edge off entirely on my first few tries. my oven is this old electric kiln i got off craigslist and i swear it has a mind of its own. i once did a soak for exactly 4 minutes and 17 seconds because i read somewhere that 1095 likes that sweet spot, but then my next batch came out like a butter knife. turns out i was running my forge way too hot and the soak was just making it worse. so yeah, i feel your pain on the weird soak times thing. maybe my oven just hates me personally.

charles_baker2817d ago

4 minutes and 17 seconds? Man that's way too specific. You really bought into some forum guru's crazy recipe.

harperp2417d ago

@hugotaylor nailed it with the forge temp being the real issue. I spent months chasing weird soak times before realizing my thermometer was off by a solid 50 degrees. Once I calibrated it and tossed a thermocouple in the forge, all those 4-minute and 17-second recipes started making sense. Your oven probably doesn't hate you, it's just got its own personality quirks like any piece of gear. 1095 is picky that way. Good on you for sticking with it and sharing what you found.