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Just realized I was forging blades way too cool for 2 years
Watched a guy at a shop in Portland last month heat his steel to orange instead of red and the edge retention was night and day - has anyone else had luck pushing their forging temp higher?
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schmidt.blake1mo ago
Read something similar on a metallurgy forum a while back about how 1080 steel actually likes higher temps for better grain refinement. The guy said most hobbyists are too scared to push past cherry red, but that orange range really lets the carbon dissolve properly. Your mileage may vary depending on your steel type though
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lily_sullivan821mo ago
Yeah, that orange range thing really clicked for me too. I was forging some 1095 and kept getting shit edge retention until I let it get a little past cherry red, almost to that bright orange. Turns out I was just too timid with the heat, the carbon needs to really get moving. I've also started letting it normalize a couple times after that hot forge and it seems to help the grain stay fine, but your mileage may vary with different alloys.
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