PhillyAlchemist

So what happens if I anneal from above the critical temp? I though the purpose of annealing was to remove the stresses from the metal by bringing it above the plasticity state.

It's 5160.

I didn't have any trouble with the first knife I made but the last several have all given me trouble when I go to try to drill the pin holes. My process is to forge the shape, bring it back up to a yellow heat and "normalize" it in vermiculite. The next day I do my basic shaping and try to drill the holes but I've thrashed several drill bits now on clearly hardened metal. I thought the normalization step would reduce the hardness of the metal to make it easier to drill. Am I doing it wrong? Any advice is greatly appreciated!