The heat treat trick that took me 4 years to figure out

I kept getting blades that were either too soft or too brittle, especially on 1084 steel. Turns out I was rushing the normalization step, like doing one cycle and calling it good. A buddy at a hammer-in last spring told me to do three full cycles with cooling to black between each one. Now my edges hold up way better and I don't get those random cracks. Anyone else skip normalization and regret it later?

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1 Comment

faith_perez7h ago

Wish I'd learned that years ago instead of ruining a dozen blades first.