A mechanic friend of mine had a pry bar with the tip broken off and I said I would forge a new one on to it for him. I forged a new tip on to it and now I guess you would call it normalized. Should I harden or temper the tip or leave it the way it is?

Leave it soft.

Mechanics sometimes misuse tools by adding extensions for leverage. A hardened bar can chip or break under stress and throw small pieces of metal or the mechanic across the room. A soft bar can bend or deform.

If I was doing that I would harden and draw the steel back to purple or so. Pry bars should be a medium carbon and benefit greatly from the stiffness when properly heat treated. If you are not set up to do that then I believe Swamp Fox has a better idea.

Hello,
Just how much of the bar do you temper? What scrap do you use to make a pry bar with? Axel, sway bar, or,,,,?

Thanks
Richard

Being a mechanic myself and from my experience working in a large shop - some of these people are SAVAGES! It might worry about the mechanic you are repairing it for, what of the 'person' who borrows it from your mechanic friend? Be on the safe side and leave it to normalise.

I am with Daryl. I use a pry bar almost every day at work. I would much rather have one bend than break. I could have the end of a heavy motor picked up or a pipe flange pulled over with it. While we know we should never put our fingers under a heavy motor to pull the shims out or get between a pipe flange and another pipe to start the bolts or put in the gasket... I see people do stuff like that all the time.

It would be much cheaper to buy a new pry bar than to get your fingers fixed.