Mild Steel Chopper Part 3 Testing

[@hdryder1568]

I assume you didnt harden the steel or heat treat or temper in any way did you? The reason I ask is I'm new to knife making and I'm in the process of making a mini cleaver I heated it to non magnetic quinched in oil and heat treated at 415 for 70 minutes. I'm going to attempt to acid wash it but dont know how well it will work being mild steel. So did you harden the mild steel?

[@scottshobbyz5416]

C A , You are correct. I didn't harden the blade. I think in one of the making of it videos I mentioned this but I can't remember which one. From everything I have seen and read there is no point trying to harden the mild steel for a knife. As it wont harden. If you have some mystery steel and you aren't sure if it will harden you could look up how to spark test mystery steel. Sounds like you Heat treat wasn't far off but just a couple tips I have learnt. You want the temperature to be a little above non magnetic for simple carbon steels. About 800-830 Celsius or about 1475-1525 Fahrenheit. Non magnetic is a tad below that. But not much. Also don't over heat it lol. A couple knives of mine that I showed on a previous video have enlarged grain and are more brittle than normal. I can tell because I snapped the tip off to see and the grain is too big. Way too big on one. As for the tempering I am a beginner. But people way better than me have advised always at least two temper cycles and preferably for 2 hours each. It can change when you get into high end funky steels but it is good formula for most steels. Also there are charts you can find online that tell you what temperature to temper at for which hardness you desire for each steel type. Just take it out let it cool then put it back in for the second temper cycle. Acid etching would definitely work on mild steel. If you just want to play, learn the process, practice etc go for it. But if you are expecting to have an awesome looking functional knife sorry to break it too you but the mild steel won't have hardened (assuming it was mild steel). I made my first 'practice knife' from mild steel because I wanted to see if I could file a bevel and not ruin good steel. It was a great deal of fun and I learnt heaps so it isn't a waste of time. You can see my knives I mentioned on my 'hand made knives so far' video. The reasons I made this knife out of mild steel are mainly: for fun, it's cheap (bout $4 AUS for the amount I used), I was curious to see how well it kept an edge, I can do nasty jobs with it and not have to worry about dinging up a good tool. Also I don't have to worry about it. It just sits in my parents wood shed. Gets rusty, sharpens in a couple minutes with a file or you can even use a grinder or sander and don't have to worry about ruining a heat treated blade. I have actually used it a surprising amount. I chopped up about three full wheel barrows worth of kindling (up to 1.5 inch thick but usually less than an inch) for my parents and split up a double bed frame, head and end worth of pine and some other things for kindling. It needs sharpening after about 15 minutes of choppoing as you can tell it stats to mash instead of chop lol. But for splitting you get longer, unless you like it to bite into the top with a light tap, then you have to sharpen it every 15min as well. I have sharpened it 8 or so times now and enjoy using it a lot. Edit: The only knife I have heat treated on this channel so far it the recycle knife in part 2. You could watch that but it doesn't explain anything.

[@hdryder1568]

@@scottshobbyz5416 10-4 thanks for the response! The mini cleaver is just a piece of mild steel 2in wide 1/4in thick from lowes or home depot cant remember which one. The only reason I attempted to harden is because I built a forge and wanted to see some glowing steel lol. I made it out of fire bricks and molded it inside and out with plaster of paris and sand. And built a homemade burner with some scrap pipe a few fittings and tapped a hole to screw a mig welding tip for the gas to blow thru. Put a high pressure propane regulator on it and the thing works like a champ! I made 2 file knives prior to these mini cleaver. I annealed them and rehardend and heat treated them but I'm sure they could have been done better. I've found great joy in making knives and can't wait to buy a 2x72 grinder. When the ol lady will let me blow 2k pray for me getting the grinder lol. Well cool man I enjoyed your video and look forward to more thanks again!

[@scottshobbyz5416]

C A, Haha I know what you mean. I had a lot of fun when I started heating things up. Although it sounds like you are way more handy than me. I could probably make a forge but not a burner. Most likely blow myself up lol. Not to mention I can't weld. I have been meaning to make some file knives. I have a dozen or so old files floating around to be used. The steel you mentioned isn't going to harden. But it can be used to practice certain things on so you don't use the good stuff and potentially muck it up. I would love a 2x72 as well. But for me it is a bit pointless. As I am still learning my way around tools and am no where near as efficient as I could be with what I have. But I can't see this hobby going away so I will get one one day :)

[@hdryder1568]

@@scottshobbyz5416 I used American Piddlers design on the burner he has a video here on you tube with step by step video's on how to make the burner. You do need a welder for 1 weld but I've been told jb weld would have been fine. But honestly after buying all the parts it would have been cheaper to buy one on Ebay which kinda chapped the ol ass but it was a cool experience and knowledge learned. The file knives are a blast to make and just as durable as any other knife you can buy. Well I subscribed so if you make a file knive I'd love to see the build. Take care buddy and I'm sure I'll be seeing your work again! 👍

[@scottshobbyz5416]

Cool thanks man. Should have a video up within a day on flattening a dished oil stone.

[@tarunmalik301]

So getting a survivor knife made up of mild steel is totally fine I guess mild steel is strong enough to do the job Am I right sir?

[@Divine_Serpent_Geh]

It’s not fine, not at all. If anything, this gentleman made this video to show exactly WHY you would never want a knife made from mild steel, especially not for trusting your life with. Sure you can make it sharp, but how long will it last before you the edge is bludgeoning things instead of cutting them? 10 minutes? There’s a reason why knives, swords, axes, really any blade really throughout history has been hardened. If mild steel worked for blades, no one would have ever bothered with heat treating.

[@rollothewalker5535]

@@Divine_Serpent_Geh During the iron age there was no hard steel. Crucible steel was the stuff of legends and tales. Wrought iron or mild steel was used instead because that's what they had available. A chopper or an axe works by weight,mild steel works just fine. Just have a file on you and it's all right.

[@scottshobbyz5416]

I wouldn't want a survival knife from mild steel. It would be better than no knife. But that's about it. Making this knife was for fun a nd an experiment. I get 10-15 minutes of cutting kindling across the grain before needing re sharpening (then it starts mashing it way through). Anything from 1/4-1.5" thick. With a file sharpened edge. I think mum used it to cut roots in the dirt of this bush she was removing from the garden. Works well for dirty tasks like that where you don't care about the tool. Ancient weapons were made of steel or iron. You could work harden the edge I believe. But most places figured out ways to increase the carbon content so heat treating could be done. Resulting in a far better tool. Romans had case hardening. You could do the process to add carbon for longer to have it penetrate deeper or all the way through the steel. Japanese made tamahagane resulting in steels with different carbon content. The best was used for swords. The worst probably for things like hoes. Different areas did different things. But mild steel is far from best for a tool.