These 4 blades are made of used plow steel about 3/32" thick. I anneal in our charcoal babeque Double use for the charcoal makes things taste better!
. I have a very primative propane forge set up no way to truely control or soak at a certain temp.The only actual forge pounding I do is to thin the edges to save My fileing time.
these were all brought to non magnetic and cooled somewhat (probably 10 minutes on 100 degree day)
3 times before goin to nonmagnetic then quenched in a thin synthetic oil that is being reused.(recycled compressor oil). then tempered in my toaster
oven set at 400 deg. for 2 two hour cycles.
The knives I have made like this hold an edge very well. The knife that I have ask for help with sheath ideas I have chpped completely through a 2x4 twice
then cut a lot of the leather for that sheath and watched a friend cut a calius off his hand with it before resharping! But they apparenly are not crowbars!
I am poorfolk and can't afford a lot of changes just need to learn what I have.
The grain looks the same in all 4 breaks. I think they all broke at about 15 degrees of bend. Thanks for any and all advice! C-Ya Bob
Results Much better!!!! edge quenched let cool completely during normalizing steps and used veg oil also checked for non mag a lot more cautiously. I also Think that I learned it is good that the blades will not catastrophicly fail but it is relly more about flexabilty than failure. The first time I Bent it went to about 45 degrees and released it almost returned to straight!! LOOK MA NO CRACKS
Thanks again Folks C-Y-All Bob