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Heard a guy at the guild say he anneals his steel 3 times before he even touches it with a file.
That stuck with me since I usually just do one quick heat and cool before cutting. Does anybody else do multiple anneals, or is that just overkill for most projects?
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joel2801mo ago
Man, three anneals sounds like a ritual from a blacksmithing cult! My usual method is "heat it up, pray a little, then see if the file skates off and cry a little." One anneal works fine for me on simpler steels like 1084 or 1095, but if I am messing with something finicky like O1 or a high alloy, I might hit it twice just to be safe. Then again, I am the guy who once forgot to anneal a piece at all and spent an hour trying to file a chunk of pure stubborn.
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adams821mo ago
Nah, I gotta push back a little @joel280. If you're working with stuff like 1084 or 1095, one anneal is probably fine since those are simple, but for O1 or any high alloy I've found three cycles really does break up the grain structure way better and saves me filing time later.
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