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Old timer told me to let the steel normalize three times before heat treat, I finally listened
I always just did two normalizing cycles because I thought three was overkill. Last week I tried his method on a 1095 blade and the grain structure came out way more uniform, less chipping at the edge. Anyone else had better results with an extra cycle?
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hannah4001mo ago
Oh man, that's exactly what happened to me last year with some 1084. I was impatient and thought two cycles was good enough, blades were fine but I kept getting this weird microchipping on the edge after sharpening. Finally tried three cycles on a whim and the difference was night and day. The grain looked almost like silk when I broke it, no more of that rough patchy stuff. Now I never skip that third cycle even if it feels like overkill, that old timer knew what he was talking about.
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milarodriguez1mo ago
It's funny how the simple stuff we skip often ends up being the most important, ain't it.
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hollyl251mo ago
Had the same thing happen with some 1095 last fall @hannah400. I was rushing a batch of small bushcraft knives and only did two normalizing cycles. Blades came out fine until I started filing the bevels and noticed the steel felt almost grabby in spots. That third cycle smoothed it right out and the difference in how clean the file cut was honestly shocking. Now I treat that extra cycle like part of the recipe, not a suggestion.
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