Hobbies And Interests
Things You'll Need
Instructions
Light your forge if available; otherwise, an outdoor wood-fueled fire will do.
Place your metal into the forge or fire, and wait for it to develop a red-hot hue. Test with a laser pyrometer. Point the laser at the metal to read its surface temperature. When the metal reaches between 1,200 and 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit, it is ready. Alternatively, touch a magnet to the heated steel; when the metal has reached its critical malleability point, it will no longer attract the magnet.
To harden the steel, remove it from the fire or forge using some long-handled tongs, and quickly and uniformly submerse it into a bucket filled with a sufficient quantity of peanut oil. Rapidly cooling heated metal will harden it. Peanut oil should be used, as it has a very high flash point, reducing the risk of fire, and it smells nice.
To soften the steel, let the fire or forge burn out naturally and leave the metal in it to cool on its own. Slowly cooling steel from its malleability point will soften it, allowing you to shape it much easier.
Place the hardened or softened metal into an electric or gas oven set at 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Leave the metal in the oven for about 15 minutes or until a straw-like yellow hue has developed on its surface. This is a sign of steel becoming tempered, a halfway point between being too soft to keep an edge, and too hard to grind and edge into it. This is generally the sought after finished state of metals to be used in knife or tool manufacturing.