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  for Metal Finishing since 1989
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Help on tempering sword

I have tried to temper a sword I have made two times already, and I has not gotten harder. I need help with this problem!

Thanks,

Matthew Sperger
- San Jose, Costa Rica
2003

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If you don't say what you are doing and not doing, Matthew, it is hard for anyone to know what you are doing or not doing that is wrong.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2003

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If the metal keeps getting harder, then it suggests you are cooling too rapidly, or from too high a temperature. Tempering might not yield a steel with less hardness, but it does give a steel with more toughness.

I think you need to get a text book. If you don't have temperature sensors, steel handily changes colour with temperature. I'd suggest you anneal the steel and start the hardening, tempering from the beginning.

Ian Brooke
university - Glasgow, Scotland
2003