4g20

P Thank you to all of you that responded. Cant say I'm happy with the answer but it is what it is. To those asking where I am, I'm near Punxsutawney. You know, the groundhog town? That's the one.

My apologies for the repeated messages, first time on here and I didn't think it took it the first few times. Had to keep rewriting the problem. I'm starting off with railroad spikes as I've seen many others use them for knives. I just moments ago tried to quench in something they call super quench. Every time I've tried to get the test knife right it came up soft. The super quench helped some but they still bent rather than breaking. And before I hardened I put them through two normalization cycles. I tested the temp on a magnet. I've been told it's a few shades past that so I shot for that. Once again, sorry for the repeats

My knives after quenching are soft in the middle with a very thin skin that resembles scale. Two normalization cycles were done before quenching and I quenched in motor oil

I put a knife through two normalization cycles before hardening and after I quenched and let it cool I went to test my process by breaking it and seeing how it broke. When I put it in my vice, I could bend it clean over. I was able to move it back and forth five times before it broke. It felt like it had a thin brittle outer coat but the inside behaved as if it were red hot.

I put four knives through two normalization cycles before hardening and once they came out I went to try and break it as a test for the others. When I started to bend it, it bent clean over 90 degrees and I was able to move it back and forth across the vice 5 times before it broke. It seemed to have a thin brittle shell but a very soft inside. Felt like I was moving hot steel instead of hardened.