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Shoutout to the old guy who showed me how to read hammer scale colors at a meetup in Ohio last month

He pointed out a blue tint in the scale on a 5160 blade I was working and told me I was burning the steel at 30 degrees too hot, which I would have never caught on my own, has anyone else had someone casually drop a tip that saved them from ruining a project?
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3 Comments
emma_lee22
Think about it from the other direction too - the old guy might have been saving you from more than just heat damage. That blue tint probably meant the steel was losing carbon at the surface, which would make the edge brittle and prone to chipping later on. So catching it early saved you from having to re-heat treat the whole blade or start over from scratch.
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victorhernandez
You ever accidentally turn a blade into a potato chip?
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the_riley
the_riley6d ago
Blew out the edge on a cheap kitchen knife once.
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