As for your hardening, then annealing, I could be wrong, but hardening, and tempering are seperate things. Hammers and blunt chasing tools should be hardened while cutting tools, scribes, etc. should be tempered.
G’day; Sorry, I can’t agree on this one, I’afraid. If one hardens
a hammer it makes it very brittle, and when used, bits will fly off
at high speed to the detriment of the user. Hammers are often case
hardened; that is, only a depth of about 0.020" of the surface is
hard. Otherwise the whole head is usually furnace tempered. The
usual thing for a hand forged hammer is to temper it back to
plum-to-blue. Cutting tools, including scribers, knives, etc should
be tempered to a light to medium straw colour. Percussion tools,
such as punches, chasing tools, should be tempered to a dark straw.
Screwdrivers, and tools with similar usage should also be dark
straw.
But completely hardened hammers would be dangerous to use. And
whilst we happen to mention danger, note when percussion tools are
well-used, the struck surface usually turns over, like a little
cap. This, because it has been work-hardened is very brittle, and
bits also fly off this at high speed. Take such a tool to the
grindstone and grind off the work-hardened top, which removes the
potential danger. So, to ‘cap’ this homily, do use eye protection
when using percussion tools. –
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/ / John Burgess, Nelson, New Zealand
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/ //\ @John_Burgess2
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