Overheard a young smith say he never normalizes his billets before forging

He was talking about a high carbon blade he was working on and I had to speak up because I've seen three blades crack from skipping that step just this year alone, anyone else run into this shortcut causing problems?

2 comments

2 Comments

robinson.leo5d ago

I've been there with skipping normalization and losing blades too. Had a chef's knife crack right at the tang on me last fall after I got lazy on a damascus billet so I know exactly what you mean. What finally worked for me was doing three full normalizing cycles at decreasing temps, about 50 degrees apart each time, and letting the steel cool all the way down in still air between heats. It adds maybe 20 minutes to the process but I haven't lost a blade to cracking since.

schmidt.eva5d ago

That three-cycle method is exactly what saved my 1084 blade last winter. I was rushing and only did two cycles and got a hairline crack, had to grind it out and start over. Have you tried slowing the cool even more by wrapping the billet in ceramic wool?