Heat Treat info

Here you will find heat treatment information for all of our billets. We also offer a heat treat service — please get in touch if that sounds like a good option for you.

All Billets

Our billets come normalised and forge annealed. We always recommend heat treating from full thickness — the sooner you complete the riskiest part of the process the better. This reduces decarb issues and warping, and allows a partial quench if you have the equipment.

Quench for 3–5 seconds then quickly clamp between aluminium plates and blow with compressed air. The transformation process is initiated around the same temperature as the flash point of quench oil — if the smoke catches fire, get it back in the oil for another couple of seconds; if not, move to the plates. During the transformation the steel is quite malleable and will hold its form once cool.

Stainless and Wrought Iron Billets

Centreline cracks (usually found with dissimilar laminates — stainless and wrought iron over carbon steel core) can usually be prevented by proper preparation for heat treatment and will not be covered by our guarantee.

We recommend bevelling to a point all the way around at 45 degrees, sanded perpendicular to the blade — not along the length. Bevelling the edges reduces the force pulling directly on the core while the austenite to martensite transformation is occurring. On rare occasions you may still get shallow cracks in high stress areas if your heat treat method is too aggressive, but the bevel method should leave you plenty of room to grind these out and drastically reduce the severity.

Steel-Specific Heat Treatment

80CrV2 Core

Heat to 830°C and hold for 10 minutes before quenching in medium oil. Temper immediately — 2 × 2-hour cycles at 195°C for approximately 61 HRC.

This steel has good toughness and should be durable even at this hardness. With practice, decent results can be achieved with a torch or forge as 80CrV2 is a fairly forgiving steel, but a heat treat oven gives the most consistent results.

We recommend testing your finished products to ensure the best results are achieved for your specific setup.

ApexUltra Core

A grain refining cycle is recommended — heat to 790°C and air cool before hardening.

Quench at 850°C in medium quench oil after a 10–15 minute hold at temperature. Temper for 2 × 2-hour cycles at 160–240°C for 66–63 HRC.

This is a relatively straightforward steel to heat treat, but with more research and practice the results can be refined for exceptional performance. There is excellent in-depth information available at Knifesteelnerds.

We recommend testing your finished products to ensure the best results are achieved for your specific setup.

All heat treatment guidelines are recommendations based on our workshop experience. Results may vary depending on your equipment, and technique. Always test finished products.