My grandfather in Abilene told me in 2019 to quench in warm brine, not cold, and after 14 failed rail spikes I finally get it | Blacksmiths - Talk Freely
My grandfather in Abilene told me in 2019 to quench in warm brine, not cold, and after 14 failed rail spikes I finally get it
Spent 2 years thinking he was stuck in the old ways until last Tuesday when a batch of 6 hooks came out with zero cracks using his method, and now I want to know if anyone else's mentor pushed a trick that felt wrong but worked?
That part about your grandfather being "stuck in the old ways" really hits home. My buddy ran a small shop doing decorative iron work and his old boss kept telling him to pull his pieces out of the oil when the smoke just started rolling, not when they went fully dark. He ignored it for years because it sounded lazy and backwards. Then he lost a whole batch of fire poker sets to warping and finally tried it the boss's way, and they came out straight as could be. Turns out the guy knew exactly what he was talking about the whole time. Old timers catch a lot of grief for habits that are actually hard earned lessons.