Bad heat treat?

Just purchased this knife and while it was forged and left to look very "pioneer-ish" I'm left questioning the heat treat. Its like this for abou 5/6 of the spine of the blade. What say you guys?

I was also sent this sheath with a hole in it. While it is only cosmetic, it bothers me knowing it is there so I have already sent an e-mail about it.

So am I over thinking things, or am I rightly concerned? I'm also trying to cover the maker so as to not tarnish anything.
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I can not tell anything from that view of the blade. Can you get us a better shot? The colors present could mean anything and if they had polished the blade out you would not even know they were there.

As for the hole in the sheath?? It depends on the price you paid what they advertised and what you expected.

If you expected the blade/sheath to be rustic that was what you got.

I have been asked to leave knives and sheaths in way worse condition than that on purpose may times. Re-enactors used to request them like that.

As Krat said, difficult to tell from the pictures you posted. With the coloring of the blade it looks like it was made from the tempering cycle and left there on purpose (for looks). Tempering is the second step of the heat treat process where some of the hardness is drawn out of the steel so that it is not brittle. To me that doesn't make it rustic looking. The sheath is machine sewn - also not rustic looking. As far as the hole in the leather - without seeing more it is hard to tell much.

I have the same set I bought years ago and the difference just surprised me. The sheath is purely cosmetic but unexpected. Just want to be sure about the knife. Here's comparison pictures.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...8d8710cf3e.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...3322e7786e.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...37230f1aad.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...562912872d.jpg

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If you were going for rustic on the knife, you got there...

The sheath just needs a little wear and abuse and it'll go rustic soon enough.

Send these pictures along with your inquiry to the make and see what they say about it. It really doesn't matter what anyone else says about the knife and sheath that they made, ... that would change anything.

Alan

The deal with your blade colors is due to the attempt at a rustic form of differential stress relief.

You make the blade, then heat it to orange like normal and do the quinch.

Then instead of taking it home and putting it into the oven or a heat treat furnace what you do is heat up a big plate of steel about a foot long and 1/4" thick in the forge.

When that big chunk of steel is about white hot you pull it out of the forge and lay the spine of the blade you made on that chunk of steel.

A "temper line" will form almost instantly and creep up the blade from spine to edge.

The whole purpose is to get a blade with a softer spine and hard edge.

The trick is to know when to pull the blade off the steel. You do not want that temper line to reach the edge and it travels faster as it goes up the blade.

If you remove the blade of too soon you have a blade that is too brittle.

If you wait too long the edge will get soft.

When you finish the process you have those mottled colors showing where the blade was heated and where the stress relief heat crept too.

The problem with this method is that it is totally dependent on the degree of light present in the forge area, the ambient temperature in the area, and the eyesight of the bladesmith.

I have done knives like this for 30 years and one thing all that experience had taught me is that ovens, even the one in the kitchen, are better for a consistent quality blade.

Thanks guys. I didn't think of tempering by conduction. I was thinking that he used the oven and just left the scale on like the others I've seen. This was the first one I've seen done by him that has left those colors, hence my concern.

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I have always figured with heat treat the proof is in the pudding. If it sharpens well, doesn't dent or chip and holds a edge well, it's good.