Forgot to normalize my steel for 3 whole years...

I've been making knives since 2021 and just figured out I've been skipping normalization every single time. Kept wondering why my blades would warp in the quench or just feel brittle after heat treat. Last month a buddy watched me work and asked why I was going straight from forge to quench. I felt pretty dumb when he explained the whole stress relief thing. Now I do two normalize cycles before hardening and my blades come out way flatter. Anybody else realize they skipped a basic step for way longer than they should have?

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wells.olivia1mo ago

Three normalize cycles changed everything for me after I spent two years dealing with blades that looked like bananas coming out of the quench. I do one at 1600F, let it cool to black, then another at 1500F, and a third at 1400F before I even think about hardening. The grain refinement is night and day too, way less chipping on the edge when I test them.

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robinf511mo ago

Buddy of mine had the same banana problem until he tried @wells.olivia method.

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