I normalise my knife 3 times and I was WRONG!

This video is probably the most controversial out of the whole series with the fact that Graham Clarke busts one of the biggest myths in knife making - normalising / normalising more than once! In this knife making video, Graham explains why normalising more than once is a redundant process and grain size only becomes fine when done once correctly. This video may save you time, hassle and bust a myth in the knife making industry. What are your thoughts? Share it with us below!

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[ivanhu]

Graham is an absolute sage who backs up what he says with anecdotal AND empirical evidence! Please feature more of him.

[FearNoSteel]

Normalize once eh? Seems this video is using normalizing as blanket term for all thermal cycling operations after forging and before hardening, normalizing is actually something specific, not a blanket term. Normalizing is not just about grain but also carbide dissolution ( above Acm.) So, "30 degrees Celsius above" a typical austenitizing temperature doesn't reach or exceed Acm in most hypereutectoid steels. The purpose of normalizing is not just for "normalizing grains" but most importantly carbides (dissolving and reprecipitating more uniform carbides.) Annealing is also an important step for further carbide refinement that has an massive effect on the austenitizing temperature and time used for hardening which has a huge affect on PAGB and carbon in solution which massively affect whether your high carbon steel blade will be a brittle at the edge or strong and stable even at the same HRC.

Normalizing: above Acm
Grain Refining: Between Ac1 and AcCm
Annealing: Above Ac1 with controlled cooling rate through Ar1 (fast or slow) for desired carbide structures (fine or coarse spheroidite or pearlite) to machine or harden from or use of isothermal holding etc.

These are some of the different types of thermal cycling operations that are done between forging and hardening. Normalizing is one of them, not all of them.

[Bridgercraft]

Can we arrange to have Graham Clarke declared a national treasure? Dude is an absolute legend!
I've only been blade making for 2 and a half years, forging for the past year and I've learnt more since watching this channel than anything else!

[jhcc]

Regarding estimating the temperature, a friend taught me this useful trick: use a magnet to see when you get up to 770°C/1, 390°F, and then sprinkle some table salt over the steel. When it melts, that’s 800°C/1, 475°F, the melting point of sodium chloride.

[simonsparks]

So far the best tutorial video's for knife makers / blade smiths. Your detail makes the difference. Thanks from South Africa - Eastern Cape.

[waveman]

finally, someone who gets it. I normalize once, though if I do a lot of work on something I'll do a normalize cycle then continue and right before the quench I'll do another cycle and then quench.

[hulkthedane]

I have a Masters degree in Geology and learned a lot about phase diagrams, phase transitions, packing of atoms, the whole shananigan - so everything you say makes PERFECT sence! I have never forged anything, nor worked with metal, but I find blacksmithing and blade making very interesting. You give those 10 % more understanding of the processes, than any of the smiths online do. THANK YOU!

[andrewkirkham]

This is great! I’ve never bought into the “multiple normalising cycle” thing, for the same reasons discussed here - only the final one counts. Another great video, and very well explained, as ever! Brilliant!

[jedhassen]

I've only just recently discovered this channel, and my god I wish I discovered it a few years ago when I started working with steel, most everything I've learnt has been through making mistakes and trying to rectify them by applying logic, I'm sure you can realise that it's a slow process, however the things I've learnt just from watching a few of these videos is fantastic! I cant wait to try and apply the things that get spoken about. Thank you for sharing the knowledge!

[robinward]

I'm a retired tool & die maker, and, over the years I have made the knives I use to skin moose. My favorite knife I made from 01 tool steel and I hardened and tempered it to 65 RC. I spoke about this on a knife-makers utube channel, and was told that I couldn't possibly have achieved 65 RC, because 65RC is as hard as 01 gets before tempering. I've watched forged in fire show on TV since the first episode, and I'm always amazed at the variety of "EXPERT" advice about heat-treating. I've always used the steel-makers recommended temps, and have relied on a rockwell hardness tester to verify my results. The experts out there make heat-treating sound like witchcraft, so I find it refreshing to hear you dispel some of the myths. Steel manufacturers have very good info on their products, and should be trusted as a source of accurate info. I don't understand why knife-makers don't use their info, but, it seems witchcraft is preferred. Keep up the good work.

[littlebear]

I find your videos as a breath of fresh air the concert we were talking about other ones that I was able to learn in my metallurgy courses and I try to teach some of the concepts to other people that are getting into bladesmithing and so forth. And a lot of what I've learned I've learned from people who knew what they were talking about thank you for putting out such great videos and I love the content

[THEfamouspolka]

Thank you for this info, this made what I've seen in my limited hobbyist workings make sense. I expect the quality of my work pieces to improve!

[unmybwj]

I am the founder of H&W Profesional grade throwing knives. Now we do not make knives for using to cut with even though we could. We make knives for no spin and half spin knife throwing. One thing that sets us apart is we do not sent our knives out for heat treat them, i do all the heat treatment myself which I tested, and continued purposely snapping pieces of the 5160 and 80crv2 until i had the process to where I felt I have it to where they do not snap tips or bend. I normalize two times with those two steels we use. Particularly because our blanks we cut out on cnc plasma running off CAD. I have tested with 3 normalizing cycles and the results were not as good nor was the grain structure. Ive tested with one cycle and there was no noticeable difference from two times.

[Lambman]

Thanks for this lesson, this has helped me understand where I went wrong!

[reddogknives]

I have learned a lot since starting to watch your channel. I appreciate your time and knowledge. The one thing I had confused was normalizing and stress relief, I was thinking they were the same thing. Certainly not, since you bring your temperature too a much lower threshold to relieve stress, and higher temperature threshold than quenching for normalizing, two completely different things. Thank you for your knowledge again, to just straighten this out in this Maker's brain. Just my thoughts from a guy in Tucson

[vandelftcrafts]

Finally debunking the myth! I tried to understand the mechanical/chemical reasons for normalizing three times and I just couldnt see why three times would be better. I think it might be because people do not soak long enough per cycle, then you only get uniform grain size on the third cycle. Love this series!

[dritsy]

i realy wish you weren't so far away, ive started out on this blacksmithing/ knife making journey a few months ago and honestly the places ive been to learn are good but you seem to have so much information and knowledge about it i am glad your making these videos to educate us i think this sort of work is a dieing art that needs reviving, keep up the good videos and ill be following along :)

[marcburkett]

This man is spot on and an absolute metal working genius. To have his knowledge at hand should be any blade makers aspiration. Einstein of Metallurgy. Thanks YouTube!

[wadejensen]

Respect to this bloke....no bullshit....just the facts!

[kylestephenson]

Mr Google gets it wrong lots very informative and well explained old fella