19++ How to temper steel for a knife blade sample

How To Temper Steel For A Knife Blade. The blade is placed in a heat treat oven and brought to a specific temperature. If the blade is too hard/chippy, temper it again 50 degrees higher to bring the hardness down a bit more. So it follows that if you intend to put your knife through hard use, you’ll want to temper it at a higher temperature than a chef’s knife that only ever slices cucumbers for instance. Tempering gives it a correct balance of hardness and toughness while relieving much of the stress.

Some tips will give you better results though, put the blade in a pan full of sand and put the whole thing into the oven. After quenching, the knife steel must be tempered in order to increase the. You can compare how the file feels on the blade part of the knife with how it feels on the handle, or on a piece of known “soft” steel. When you temper it you allow carbon to dissolve into the iron and form more durable structures at the cost of. In a kitchen oven at 400 deg f for about 20 minutes. After the blade has cooled sufficiently, then you must “temper” the blade to slightly lower the hardness so that the steel is not too brittle and prone to chipping, cracking or breaking.

Heat the blade for 15 to 20 minutes in an oven set on 325 fahrenheit if the handle is metal.

Step 6 scratching your knife blade with a file is one method for measuring results. This is what hardens the blade. This relieves the stress built up in the steel, and softens it down a bit, and you end up with the perfect hardness for a knife blade. Correctly performed hardening will result in a good balance between hardness, toughness and corrosion resistance of the finished knife blade. Tempering gives it a correct balance of hardness and toughness while relieving much of the stress. Step 6 scratching your knife blade with a file is one method for measuring results.