meinhoutexas

Quenchcrack, if i understand your answer just molten salt will allow you to temper. when i say just molten i mean salt that has heated to the fluid state. that said i would prefer to heat a heavy piece of plate to the tempering temp and then introduce the blade to the "stove top " cover with ko wool and alow to temper that way. and yes i have taken you advice and am trying to avoid the use of salts. As far as joining the HABA i havent thought of that and i thank you for the invite. Please be advised i am verry new to th feld of blacksmithing and am learning from a blacksmith down in SantaFe and we both are learning to make blades

yes lot of what you just said makes sense. the thing that confuses me is severall statments about holding the tempering temp for extended times to alow the heat to "soak" into the core of the thicker portions of the blade. with the melt. temp at 500deg the temper would be about right

could someone tell me why i should/would use hot salt to temper my blades? i plan to make a hot bed with 1 1/4 plate to heat ,place blade onto plate then cover with insulation and alow to cool slowly from temper heat. This is after first quench and to set the temper of steel

heck my father-in-law lives up on lake whitney if you want to call that mud hole a lake! welcome to your new addiction!!!!

love the idea of the cross. Do what you want and tell the rest to go take a hike! And like John B. sorry to hear of your loss. Ps heating and beating good therapy

reading all the posts now i need an answer i have some "pre-stressing" cable out of bridge beams would that be good stuff to work with? Have welded it with 7018 stick and was verrryyy brittle. Not nearly 3/4" dia but like 6 strands and over 1/8 dia per strand

hello all i to am new to smithing however i am not new to iron . Have been welding for over 15+ years and have always wanted to learn blacksmithing. Found a smith who needed an apprentice and somone who could weld stainless and here i am.