Great video! I especially enjoyed watching you forge the blade and work on the scabbard. I have been making a few scabbards myself, and they are tough to do right--I tend to get them fitted fine and I tighten them up too much with the cord wrap...which makes me think they are not actually fitting fine. I like your method--very clean.

Couple follow up questions:

1) Do you chisel out both sides of the scabbard, or is the other (back) side flat?

2) How long do you find is necessary to soak in low temp salts to get a comparable temper that a 2 hour soak in the oven would give?

3) Do you have a propane burner for your low temp salt pot? If so, what re-ignition set up do you use/recommend?

Thanks for posting this video. Inspiring.

Steve

|quoted:

Great video! I especially enjoyed watching you forge the blade and work on the scabbard. I have been making a few scabbards myself, and they are tough to do right--I tend to get them fitted fine and I tighten them up too much with the cord wrap...which makes me think they are not actually fitting fine. I like your method--very clean.

Couple follow up questions:

1) Do you chisel out both sides of the scabbard, or is the other (back) side flat?

2) How long do you find is necessary to soak in low temp salts to get a comparable temper that a 2 hour soak in the oven would give?

3) Do you have a propane burner for your low temp salt pot? If so, what re-ignition set up do you use/recommend?

Thanks for posting this video. Inspiring.

Steve

1. To keep the angles symmetrical, I carve out both sides , but only one side for the edge, if that makes sense.

2. I get the same level HRC change that I expect from an hour or more in an oven within 30 minutes with the salts, but after I find the HRC I want I give it more time at temperature. So because of this, even though the salts are much quicker the blades get that same total time as they would in an oven.

3. I use LP for my high temp and electric heating for my low temp.

|quoted:

1. To keep the angles symmetrical, I carve out both sides , but only one side for the edge, if that makes sense.

2. I get the same level HRC change that I expect from an hour or more in an oven within 30 minutes with the salts, but after I find the HRC I want I give it more time at temperature. So because of this, even though the salts are much quicker the blades get that same total time as they would in an oven.

3. I use LP for my high temp and electric heating for my low temp.

Thanks for replying so fast. I still can't get over how accessible and helpful so many experienced bladesmiths with ABS are. Totally awesome.

I hope you don't mind another follow up question or two...

1) That does make sense. I like your use of alder as well. I've been using clear yellow cedar, and it's just too soft. The edge of the sword/knife just slice right into it, especially if I have a glue joint along the edge down the middle. For my last scabbard I used a strip of ipe along the edge, and that worked better...but still not ideal. I'll try your method next time, with alder.

2) I guess I don't fully understand how tempering works. I was under the impression that increased time and increased temperature lowered hardness. The more time, the more tempered. The higher the temp, the more tempered. If I understand you correctly, you are saying that you get to the hardness you want with a short soak (30 min) and then soak more time at that temperature. That doesn't lower the hardness even more? Or do you reduce the temperature for the second longer soak after getting the hardness you want? I don't have a rockwell tester--I'm just using chisels that I purchased from Mathew Parkinson to get in the ballpark.

3) Electric would be awesome. I'll need to figure out my LP low temp pot--I have it set up, I just don't have a reliable ignition source...which seems to be a pretty important thing to get right.

Thanks you for sharing your knowledge and experience.

Steve

Time does have an effect but at these temperatures it has a very small effect compared to raising the temperature just 25°. A small bump in temperature will result in a drop in hardness within an hour even in an oven, but at 400°F, you need many hours to days to get the same effect. Diffusion is incredibly slow at these temperatures but it speeds up as the temperature increases. When you go over 1340°F it gets very fast and you are talking seconds in stead of minutes or hours.

I would only recommend electric for low temp salts. I tried the electric with high temps and am glad I switched.