I took a couple knives ready for heat treating to a friend's house today and we ended up breaking one of them. Thankfully, it was the one that I feared wouldn't even make it through quenching due to some grinding errors I had previously made... When we went to straighten the thin end of the blade that warped a bit in the quench, the front inch or so snapped right off. My friend felt terrible, but I really wasn't worried since it was basically an experiment knife for me at that point.
The interesting thing came when we picked up the pieces and looked at the "grain"-nice and fine. I was actually pretty surprised, but very happy. I've been trying to do as Lin and Karl and some of the rest of you have talked about with my reducing heats on thermal cycles, but have struggled with how hot I was getting the steel. This showed I'm on the right track. Amazing what happens when you listen to those that are smarter than you
. Thanks to all who take the time to pass on their wisdom to the rest of us.
Jeremy