jim c

I often anneal in my gas forge, heating the piece up at the end of the day and then turning off the forge and shutting it up to make heat loss as slow as easily possible. For small items I still often use a Helper Bar".

I don't use the coal forge to anneal in as I like it OUT before I leave the shop.

thank's, thats a good one , i did not think of that one , i will try it . have a great day!

What exactly is happening that causes you to say you're having trouble annealing the steel?

hello, what's going on is after forging out the blade i will normalize by bringing the blade to a good orange color then setting it aside on the coal bed then again to orange and putting it in lime ( witch i plan on getting rid of ) then i try to drill a hole for pins and it's just to hard. the wraper on the material says it's an oil harding steel and it's warpless,maybee a brand name? also it has the recipe of the steel on the wraper but i am not to familar with the peticular's, maybee if i had some kind of chart?

I always had really good success with the ashes out of the wood stove. Just stir/fluff them up, and put the piece in.

Shoot, since it is winter, just chuck it into the wood stove, that is if ya have one.

***** i just might try the wood stove thing ..i like that thanks!

HELLO, I INHERITED SOME STEEL A FEW YEARS AGO AND HAVE BEEN MAKING BLADES FROM IT BUT LATELY I CAN'T SEEM TO ANNEIL THE STUFF. ON THE WRAPER ITS CALLED WARPLESS AND IM ASSUMING ITS O1 IT IS A OIL HARDING STEEL. MY FREIND THAT PASSED WAS A MACHINEST. I USE LIME AS A ANNEILING MEDIUM THOUGH IM READY TO SWITCH TO VERMECULITE AS IT SEEMS THAT MOST PEOPLE USE IT.ANY IDEAS?

good morning, just signed up and trying to get a grip on useing this site. i've been smithing since 1999 and will continue for the deration. will send in some pictures as soon as i figure i out. im not good at typing!!! see ya