I would recommend doing the heat treating yourself. It's a great skill to learn and more fun if you do it all yourself.

I bring my 1084 blades to 1500f before I quench them But, I believe that if you heat till non-magnetic and then let the blade get a shade lighter say about salmon your ready to quench. I prefer to use a thermocouple to read the temp. in the forge but, some knife makers seem to do well just judging by the colors of the steel.

That's just my 2 cents. hopefully some of the more experienced smiths will chime in and give you some more specifics.

Once you get the HT down, 1084 makes a pretty nice knife.

Wesley

Scott,

1084 is a very forgiving steel when it comes to the H/T. You should strive for 50-75 degrees above nonmagnetic before quenching. Quenching in the preheated canola oil will work fine.

When heating in a horizontal type forge like a Little Johnny you should move the blade inside the forge when getting close to critical in order to heat it evenly as there will be a cold spot in the forge directly below the intake manifold.

I will temper my 1084 @ 425 degrees but I'm sure that others prefer 400.

Gary

Thanks ya'll I'm going to try it first on a piece of flat stock that will give me something to go by. I apprieciate your input

The great thing about 1084 is it really doesn't require any soak time, unlike most of the steels we use that require a fairly long soak to get the most out of them.

Personally I would just give it a go with a knife. Quenching in canola, your not going to crack the blade and assuming it is a hunter sized knife the chances of warping are pretty low. I think you will learn more starting with a blade than with a piece of bar stock. The bar stock doesn't have an edge bevel so hardening it is going to be different than with a blade. Better to start practicing with what you want to do in the end, in my opinion.

Set the forge toward the low end of where it will run. I run mine as low as it will go, but every forge is different so a little experimenting will be needed to get the right heat. Keep the blade moving around, the tip and ricasso areas being the parts to really keep an eye on. The ricasso will require more time to come to temp, while the tip will be easily over heated. Care should also be taken with the mid blade not to over heat, on longer blades this can become a bit of a balancing act, but with a hunter sized knife isn't that big a deal. As mentioned earlier 1084 is very forgiving so you shouldn't have any problems, at worst it doesn't harden and you try again.

Once the whole blade is non-magnetic into the oil. Once in the oil keep it moving a bit to speed cooling, and keep it in till it is cool. Then into the oven, I go three cycles of 2hrs each. 400f is a good place to start, though if the blade is coming out to hard you may need to nudge it up.

Like Justin states the areas to watch for are the tip and ricasso. There is a lot more meat in the ricasso and it will take longer to reach temp. When you quench, as Justin says move the blade, not side to side as this will promote warping, but forward and back as if slicing the oil. This helps with the vapor jacket that will occur. I start 1084 at 425 degrees for two hours in the tempering oven, then give it another two hour 425 degree run. Go for it Scott and let us know how it works.

Brion

Thanks guys I will give it a try. new forge should be here the beginning of next week! it's coming from ozark knife makers.it looks like a cool little forge. I'll be posting about it all and thanks ya'll for all the info.sincerly Scott