[TheForge] Hardening steel

[Bob Ehrenberger]

Mike,

This does sound strange.  I will have to test this myself. From my
experience in making tools a hardened tool is much more rigid than an
annealed one.  When I made my bending fork it wouldn't hold its shape when I
just normalized it, but when I hardened and tempered it it became very rigid
and has not deflected in 4 years use.

Bob Ehrenberger
Shelbyville, Mo

.

Hardening the steel baskets (or any of the quench & temper steels, including
tool steels), does not make it any stronger as far as resisting bend.  The
amount that a piece of steel will deflect or bend under weight is called the
Modulus or Modulus of Elasticity, or Modulus of Rigidity, and as strange as
it sounds, is the same for a piece of annealed or fully hardened steel.  A 3
ft. long bar of 1/2 inch diameter drill rod held on one end in a vice, and a
5# weight hung on the other end, would bend or deflect the bar the same
amount if the drill rod was annealed (Rockwell C 24) as you purchased it or
Rockwell C 62 after hardening.  It will take a "set" with less weight as the
yield strength is lower on the soft steel.
Mike Schermerhorn