WHOA!
How many heat treating steps have you been doing?!?!?
Really, 1040 is the simplest of steels. So little carbon that it really isnt that fussy. Simply normalize, heat to the point that the steel no longer exhibits magnetism, then quench in strong brine. You can get away with a brine quench on such a low carbon steel. Always test to make sure your hardening was successful. The file test is a good way to ROUGHLY make sure your blade is hardened.
Tempering to 545 degrees F is WAY too high for such a steel. It would never hold an edge! For a steel like 1040, you really only need to temper to a light yellow, simply as a light stress relieving process. Temper at 350-400 degrees F for about 30-45 minutes. An hour if you are particularly nervous about toughness.
Good luck!
|