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My forge at the shop on Marlow St taught me more than 4 years of reading ever did | Blacksmiths - Chatter Central

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My forge at the shop on Marlow St taught me more than 4 years of reading ever did

Three years back I spent about 200 hours watching videos on heat treating before I ever lit my own fire. Then Dale, the guy who runs the shop on Marlow St, handed me a piece of 1084 and said just watch the color, and I finally got it in one afternoon. All those charts never told me what cherry red actually looks like when the lights are dim. How did the rest of you learn to read steel by eye instead of by chart?

2 comments

2 Comments

alice_hart1mo ago

I had a similar thing happen with reading about color temperatures in a book by Jim Hrisoulas. He wrote that you should learn to judge heat by eye in a dark shop, and that a magnet only tells you when you passed the point, not where you are. That line stuck with me because I was doing the same thing you were, staring at charts and trying to match them to what I saw. My first few knives got way too hot at the tip because I was chasing some idea of "non magnetic" instead of just watching the steel. Dale's way is the only way that really sticks, you have to burn a few pieces to learn what your shop light does to the color.

jake_wilson121mo ago

Wait, 200 HOURS of videos before you ever lit a fire? That is wild, man. I can't even wrap my head around that, because most of what I know came from messing up steel in person, not from watching somebody else do it on a screen. Cherry red in a dim shop looks nothing like the colors in those charts, you're dead right about that, and no video can teach you what your own eyes see under your own lights. Alice is spot on too, chasing "non magnetic" got me the same way, tips overheating before I even knew what happened. Burning a few pieces stings but it teaches you faster than any book ever could. Dale handing you that 1084 and just saying "watch the color" was probably the best lesson you ever got.