Took me 4 years to realize I was quenching wrong

I always just dunked hot steel straight into the bucket and wondered why I'd get uneven hardness. Then a guy at a demo last fall showed me to agitate it in a figure-8 pattern and my blades stopped warping. Anyone else have a basic technique they overlooked forever?

3 comments

3 Comments

olivia67019d ago

My buddy Mike taught me the same thing after I cracked three blades in a row. I was a total skeptic about the figure-8 thing but now I swear by it. It really does make a HUGE difference.

morgan.jason19d ago

Oh come on, you guys are way too sold on this figure-8 thing. I tried it religiously for like two months last year and honestly didn't see any difference versus just making normal steady passes. Actually I think it made things worse because I was focusing too much on the motion and not enough on keeping a consistent speed. Cracked more blades doing figure-8 than I ever did just winging it. Maybe I'm the odd one out but I really don't get the hype.

mark_chen6219d ago

Man, this is wild because I had the exact same experience as you. I was breaking blades left and right on my table saw, and a buddy showed me the figure-8 on a sharpie line. Took me like a week to get the hang of it, but after that, I stopped cracking blades completely. I even tried going back to straight passes a few months later just to test it, and sure enough, I cracked one immediately. It's weird how much that little looped motion changes the pressure points. I don't know why it works exactly, but for me, it's night and day.