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Hardening and tempering

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TRiggs:
If you want a good heat treat then you should do it in proper order, use clean oil for your quench
#1 heat your quench oil ! ! ! !
#2 thermo-cycle your blade 3 or 4 times this will tighten the grain of the steel
#3  Heat your blade until it is not magnetic anymore
#4 Quench the blade slowly moving in figure 8's
#5 Pull it out when it won't burn your eyebrows off,  all that flame in the quench is for show and it's dangerous, it should be hot when it comes out but not on fire.
#5 pop it into your oven and bake  @ 400 for2 hours then 300 for an hour, then 200 for 1 hour and let it cool off in the oven.
Some on Forged in Fire you will see thermo-cycle there blades most don't and they never have a chance to temper the blade that takes a few hours and if you watch it you can see each Smith quench is own blade and I have never seen a tempering oven on the show.

Mr. Woolery:
Dieselcheese said something I was about to comment on.  I watched an older episode with my kids a few days ago and all the contestants were given identical steel (W2 round stock) to start with.  One guy put his blade into the quench at a screaming yellow heat, the judges commented on it being really hot.  He pulled it out still red hot, then put it back in.  It must have been close to 1800 degrees (though I know the camera doesn't really tell the truth at those temperatures, so I'm only guessing). 

In the testing, his blade had a chip come out of it.  Now, I don't know what sort of test it is to baton the blade against a huge steel nut, but that's what you have to expect on this show.  The other blade it was compared to did not chip. That smith had hardened at a much lower temperature. 

I am honestly surprised to see very few examples of smiths checking their blades with magnets before quenching.  I know some do, but counting on a trained eye in an unfamiliar shop with studio lights, camera crews, all the stress of the deadline, and the often rather whacky parameters to the challenge is counting on a trained eye that is being asked to work in the worst circumstances.  A magnet would make life so much simpler. 

But I do think it would be better to allow the smiths to do their own tempering.  It would be a more genuine comparison, I think.

-Patrick

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