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Having got our shape, we now enter the arcane world of tempering: achieving the right hardness and resilience.
It really is very satisfying to take an old or unwanted too, reshape and re-temper it into something fine and useful.
| 08 November 2020 13:16
Andras - If you 'blue' the edge by over heating during sharpening, just grind back beyond it a little and start to re-commission.
This sort of heat treatment is a major operation/surgery, whereas you would only need the emergency room and the equivalent of a Band-aid!
| 06 November 2020 15:46
Thank you very much for this Chris! Question; if I burned my tool even a little during grinding (V-tool), could I "repair" the damage by re-harden - temper-ing it again the way you are showing? I assume yes, but would you do it even if you burned just the corner a little?
Thank you much,
Andras
| 22 April 2019 09:59
Bob - Honestly, I don'y know the answer to this one. Modern tempering is computer-driven and we know so much more about the steel we use and metallurgy these days, so there should be both consistency and the best result, or certainly a more exact choice of result. I have always felt that it's the exquisite shaping of old tools that made them stand out, rather than the tempering. But, having said that, there is no doubt that the older method of using tempering by eye and feel gave fine results too.
It's all about that balance between the metal and the fire.
| 22 April 2019 03:48
Interesting video, and it reminds me of a question; my older Herring and Addis tools seem, sometimes, to sharpen differently than my contemporary tools — even the wire edge seems to sometimes form differently.
Do you suppose this is due to old fashioned tempering vs. modern methods?
Or just my imagination?
Or older steel vs newer?
Thx
Bob
