Blacksmith's metal finish

[Chris C]

darndest

9 hours ago, pnut said:

just a convenient excuse to gripe at someone

I've tried my darndest to get him to soften up and be nice, but I've never even seen him crack a smile.  Bites my head off every time we make contact.............or that's the way I take it.  Hope I can get through that "exterior" some day.  I've no "beef" with anyone in the world, I just like to get along with everyone.

9 hours ago, Frosty said:

Too much too hot can make a heck of a cloud of smoke. A person with COPD isn't going to welcome ANY smoke, especially not wax smoke.

He smokes cigarettes like he'll never get another one, so I don't really think he has a medical aversion to smoke.. 

 

Chris

[pnut]

There's some folks you just have to accept your not going to be buddies with, but that doesn't mean there's no hope until there's obviously no hope. Personally I'll only try to be friends with someone for so long until I give up and just continue to be polite and leave it at that.

Pnut

[Chris C]

I hear ya.  Shame too.  I saw him at the demo the club was giving at the County Fair last weekend and he's good at the anvil.  He could teach us newbies a whole lot if he could just get along with people.  But in the 5 months I've known him, that was the first time I'd seen him pick up a hammer.

You just never know what is going on in a persons mind or in their life.  He could have a really full plate and just not be able to handle it all.  Have to give people their own space sometimes.

Chris

[anvil]

He just needs a new temper. This time pull it to a "blew", thats a little softer. 

[Chris C]

[Lyndall]

Hi there I've been enjoying the conversation about finishing. I want to sharpen a gardening fork to make it more effective but I think I need to harden it as well I don't have a forge. Can I harden the gardening fork using a propane torch and crouching in cold water then reheat to apply the finish??

I wonder if somebody could explain in detail how to harden the metal by heating please.

[George N. M.]

Welcome aboard from 7500' in SE Wyoming.  Glad to have you.

It would be a help to know where you are.  Please put you general location in your profile.  This is a world wide forum and we don't know if you are in Tasmania, Lapland, or Kansas.

A real basic review of heat treating is that if you heat a medium to high carbon steel to a temperature where a magnet will no longer stick to it and quench in vegetable oil, water, brine, or a commercial quenchant it will lock the crystals in the steel in a certain crystal configuration which is hard but brittle.  You usually then want to temper it to some degree making it less hard and brittle and more tough and flexible.  You can judge how far you are tempering it by the colors that form on clean, bright steel as you heat it up (aka oxidation colors).

There is a lot more written on this and probably available on the internet.  There are also advanced techniques like annealling and normalizing before heat treatment and various ways to temper a piece of steel whether with a torch, in an oven, in a forge, etc.  You will have to do more research about these processes.  Knife makers are most concerned about the subtlties of heat treating.  It is generally not used except for a tool with an edge or a spring.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."