Heard a guy at the guild say he anneals his steel 3 times before he even touches it with a file.

That stuck with me since I usually just do one quick heat and cool before cutting. Does anybody else do multiple anneals, or is that just overkill for most projects?

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1 Comment

joel2801h ago

Man, three anneals sounds like a ritual from a blacksmithing cult! My usual method is "heat it up, pray a little, then see if the file skates off and cry a little." One anneal works fine for me on simpler steels like 1084 or 1095, but if I am messing with something finicky like O1 or a high alloy, I might hit it twice just to be safe. Then again, I am the guy who once forgot to anneal a piece at all and spent an hour trying to file a chunk of pure stubborn.