Harbinger

Good advice - I found that book easy to follow - but we learn as we go. I am thankful this resource exists and you guys are willing to help out (I will attempt to pay it forward as I am able).

Thank you - appreciate the clarification.

Thank you for the reply. Just went through them again. I guess I was under the assumption that 3 rounds of normalizing would help with grain refinement and then annealing would additionally help to soften the steel to allow ease with drilling holes through the tang (I never had it clear if this was absolutely necessary - I was wondering if the heat prior to annealing after normalizing would increase the grain size again..). - I obtained this idea from the book "A Modern Guide To Knifemaking" by Laura Zerra - this is the quote: "After the steel has been normalized, it will be relatively hard. Without further processing it will be very difficult to work with tools. By annealing the steel, you bring some of the softness back while maintaining the homogeneous grain structure." Please let me know your thoughts - HT seems to be one of those subjects that many people have opinions on - I am working to develop a system that works for me and I am open to learning from the wisdom of others.

I am forging a blade out of 5160. Roughed out the basic shape in propane forge, took it through 3 cycles of normalizing and then annealed overnight in vermiculite. Rookie mistake - noticed a bend in the blade after annealing and wondering best way to address it. Planning on re-heating in the forge and flattening it out. My intention is to take it through normalizing and annealing again after that - but my question is - Is this necessary to go through those steps again?