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Old 08-25-2008, 01:19 PM
ThomasPowers ThomasPowers is offline
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Location: Central NM
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True mild steel doesn't harden by quenching; it doesn't have enough carbon in it. You could try to make blister steel from it by heating it in a sealed pipe full of powdered charcoal, the real stuff not briquettes, heat it to a nice cherry red for 6 hours or so and then take out clean up---trying not to grind through the case and then heat and wuench and temper.

Why not make them from a carbon steel to start with? Makes heat treat so much simplier?
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