I forged a blade from a Nicholson file and I normalized/annealed two times.  The blade was not straight, bent at the choil.  So I taped three wooden dowls on the blade, one at the choil, the other two on the other side at the handle and blade.  I put it in the vise and slowly tightened the vise and during that process I hear a faint "Tick" sound.  The blade is straight and no visable crack at the choil!

So, my questions-

 - Will the blade survive the heat treat?

 - Should I just quench the working part
   of the blade and not the choil and handle?

 - Or should I coat the spine and choil
   with clay to quench?

 - Quench in veggie oil or H2O?

 - And if I need to straighten a blade in the
   future when should I do that, after heat
   treat and tempering?

Steve
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ABS Apprentice
Potomac Forge
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IN GOD WE TRUST

i hardly ever quench the whole thing, moslt just edge quench.  next time you have this problem heat it up to a low forgeing hert and use a wood  mallet on it.  i had never done this till about 2 weeks ago.  it really gets things pretty straight. i would use water. im sure some others will comment as well. hope this helps

The blade has a crack somewhere.  Water is a very hard quench and will most likely finish the micro cracking so it is obvious.  I would try it with oil.  If this one is for sale, I would start over and make a new blade,  Keep this blade for yourself. That crack will show up sooner or later!

Steve,
If I understand you correctly, this "tick" sound happened when you were straightening the blade before you hardened it, right? If you indeed softened the blade and then straightened it, the sound was probably just the scale popping a little and not the actual blade. In this case you should be fine to continue on with the process. Lin

Or possibly the sound of metal shifting in the vise as you tightened it?

Or one of the wooden dowels cracking.
But Lin is correct. If it truly was softened, it wasn't the steel.
But if not..........?

Good information, thanks.

First off the knife will not be sold, it's a gift for my nephew and will not see hard use, at least in the traditional way!

I normalized and annealed the knife then straightend it.  So I hope it was the scale on the blade poping!  I used cut offs from cedar arrow shafts so I doubt it was the wood, it sounded "metalic".

I will post a pic regardless of the out come!

Thanks, Steve

ABS Apprentice
Potomac Forge
------------
IN GOD WE TRUST

Steve,
The scale would be the hardest thing on the blade and it will certainly pop and carry on in the straightening of the blade. Think of it as the crust on fried chicken.    Lin

Yep,

An annealed steel from a good file shouldn't crack on you.