Old black handled country general shovel

[Pancho07]

After the fire we have a shovel that either was work weakened or annealed and has a bend in it and just curves into the ground. I would like to try to hammer out the bend and retreat it. How should I go about doing that or should I be wasting my time? If it can't be done no big deal but this shovel has been through heck and back with my wife so we would like to resurrect it but if it becomes a "useless" wall hanger that's fine

[SLAG]

Pancho,

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Can you post one?

SLAG.

[Pancho07]

These are the best that I could do for the moment. That bend may not be real visible and I just noticed a crack in the blade, I think the crack should be a fairly easy fix if I can get the thing retreated I just don't know how to go about that on this unknown steel. The brand name has been worn off

[Frosty]

Shovel blades are "usually" a medium carbon steel that's hard to over harden. Bring it to nonmagnetic, quench in oil and test it. I have an old shovel blade I've been thinking about using in a pattern welded billet. We used to use old shovel and spade blades for target practice, the guys were always surprised when their 44 mag wouldn't even dent one. Send it flying but no dents just a lead smudge.

Good steel whatever it really is. I'd treat it like a medium-high carbon steel, think 1060 - 1070 +/-.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Pancho07]

Thanks frosty, do I need to attempt to temper or leave it alone after the quench?

[Frosty]

Maybe, a file should NOT skate, it's not a knife blade. You want to be able to sharpen your spades and shovels with a draw file but you want them hard enough to pry with. I think stiff springy is a good target hardness. If it gets skating hard, maybe draw to between a light and medium straw. I'd draw the handle socket close to purple so it has more give but not a lot.

You ARE aware I'm speculating, sort of experienced knowledge but I've never heat treated a spade blade. Some things are inherent though. First I KNOW it's darned tough steel and probably not a high alloy or we couldn't afford to buy the things. Second, It's THIN so it's NOT going to hold critical temp for more than maybe 5 seconds so you need to have the quench ready BEFORE your start taking a heat. Being thin the temper colors will run fast, Fast, FAST! I'd do it over a large soft fire.

By soft I mean a bed of charcoal briquettes or a small camp fire, not a raging inferno just a small fire, larger than the spade blade but not big. NO air blast! After you harden it shine it up, have the water handy to stop the draw and keep the blade moving over the fire.

Move quick you won't have long, seconds at most.

Frosty The Lucky.