Guide topic
Knife Heat-Treatment
Plain-English, source-cited guides to hardening and tempering blade steel.
Guide
Tempering temperature and color chart
What the temper colors mean, why an oven beats reading oxide colors, and typical knife temper temps.
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Guide
Quench and temper: hitting a target HRC
The austenitize–quench–temper sequence and the three levers that set final hardness.
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Buying guide
The best knife making supplies (2026)
the grinder, the heat-treat gear that actually controls hardness, and the handle and sheath kit.
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The app for this
Temper: Knife Heat-Treatment Calculator
Pick your steel and target hardness and Temper returns the full schedule — austenitizing, quench, temper, cryo, expected HRC — from published metallurgy. Free to download.