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gbj_tester
@M_V
Anyone hardened steel with a torch?
I need a couple big cone spanners (24&25mm) and rather than shell out almost a tenner each for Park ones (only brand that goes to that size) I thought I could buy some steel and cut them myself. I can get a sheet of stainless big enough to make both for less than half the cost of 1 Park spanner.
My only concern is that the steel might be a bit soft and they won't last very long so I thought about trying to harden them with my mapp torch.
I've googled it and it seems possible but almost all the results I'm finding are from knife makers who talk for like 2 sentences about the hardening then 3 pages about why you'd quench in olive oil rather than sunflower oil and the tempering oven they've spent $500 building.
These will be for personal use only so I can't be bothered tempering, if they break, shit happens.
Im probably going to just give it a blast and see what happens, I did plan to just quench in water (it's free and less flamible, I'm reading that flash fire when quenching in oil is a risk) but if anyone knows any reason not to use water, I'm all ears.