1084 - High Carbon Blade Steel

1084 High Carbon Steel 

15% discount when buying 3+ pieces (across sizes or from the same size)

The most popular carbon steel for knife makers is probably 1084 Carbon Steel, due to ease of heat treatment. High quality blade steel for knife making by forging and stock removal. Suitable for use by hand tools as well as grinder.

The blade can be heat treated any way you can get it hot enough, no soak time or complicated temperature changes required.

The steel comes already annealed (soft) and ready to work.

It can be drilled, filed, ground and shaped with relative ease. Look up hand filing jig on youtube for an easy to make hand filing jig for making even bevels.

This steel will need to be heat treated, either at home or by sending it away for professional heat treatment. 

This is the steel used in the carbon steel basic knife making kit and in our workshops at Nordic Edge.

 Heat treating 1084 Carbon Steel:

• Heat steel to non-magnetic (max 815 C)
• No hold time, quench as soon as hot enough
• Quench in heated (40-60 C) canola oil for a fast, effective quench
• Temper twice, for 2 hours at 200 C (in a kitchen stove, for instance)

Optional: it is recommended to stress relieve the steel by heating it to red hot and letting it air cool a couple of times before quenching. This helps reduce stress in the steel before the (stressful) quench. If wanting to normalise to refine grain size, heat to 875 C and let air cool 2-3 times. Normalising is done if the steel has been forged, if doing stock removal this step is not usually done. (Pro tip: ALWAYS normalise before quenching for a stronger blade)

showing blades after normalizing cycles, where the blades are heated and left to air cool. This is often done before quenching, helping to releave tension from the blade before quenching. It also helps reduce the grain size if the blade has been overheated and is generally a good idea.