Just wondering if anyone has tried heat treating 1084 with an acetylene torch? I do all my work out of an automotive shop, and all I really have access to is a torch. Should I even attempt it, or just send out my knife for heat treating?
No reason why you can't. I've done it with a propane one. The process is the same: keep the torch moving to bring the whole blade up to colour evenly, test for non-magnetic and quench.
I would suggest using a rosebud as opposed to a cutting tip. Cutting tip is too localized for getting the whole piece up to temp evenly.
Should be doable especially with 1084, just be sure to pre heat your quench oil first as well. Some have had trouble getting 1084 to harden fully without doing a normalizing cycle around 1600-1650 first and letting it cool. This temp will be hard to judge by eye or magnet, but it may help to go to your target temp once, cool, and then go back to target temp and quench. Something about the grain condition in its annealed state required a big of cycling to get it fully hard.
