Was forging a "D" style fire-steel and broke one of the handle off. So...popped it back in the forge and this crawled out:



Coil spring of unknown lineage, braided leather wrap (my first). Tempered in water with a thin film of oil on top. Dont know what i'll use it for. Wife says its cute! Go figure... Comments welcome...bart

Tempered in water?

Yes. Oil didnt seem to get it very hard.

Water doesn't get hot enough to temper any steel, it boils off at 212, only under high pressure can it get any hotter???

The reasion for my question is that tempering is the second (kind of) part of the heat treating process. Heatin to critical temp and quenching is the first part (kind of) and it makes the steel really hard and prone to failure if not taken down into a less hard state. That part is the tempering part.
We may indeed be talking about the same thing but a common language will help.

I really like the wrap job you did for the handle.

Sorry. Meant to say hardened in water. I then tempered edge to bronze. Thanks ro looking. Bart

Oh thanks! Closeup of wrap:

I think it's "cute" too!!!!!!