Heard a guy at the scrap yard say he never quenches his own spring steel

I thought he was just being lazy or cheap, but he showed me a batch of leaf springs he'd annealed and normalized himself. He said he gets them from a specific supplier in Dayton who already heat treats them to a known spec, so he just forges and tempers. Tried it on a small knife project last week, and the edge held up way better than my usual guesswork. Has anyone else switched to using pre-treated steel for certain jobs?

3 comments

3 Comments

tessa_murray25d ago

Honestly, that sounds like a lot of extra steps just to avoid quenching. Is the difference really that big?

dylan60420d agoTop Commenter

Bro, it's night and day. You skip the whole stress of the quench cracking your blade. No more warping, no more guessing if your oil is the right temp. You just take that pre-hardened steel, throw it in the oven, and you're done. It's way more chill and you get a solid, reliable blade every single time.

loganthompson25d ago

Wait, he gets them from a specific supplier in Dayton? That's wild, I didn't even know you could source spring steel like that. @tessa_murray, it's not extra steps if you skip the whole risky quench, lol. Getting a known good steel and just tempering it sounds way smarter than my usual mess.