Annealing an old file

Look for the soft K23 fire bricks. You can cut and shape them very easily. The harder fire bricks act more like a heat sink and absorb heat instead of insulating the chamber and keeping the heat in.
 
Taz said:
Look for the soft K23 fire bricks. You can cut and shape them very easily. The harder fire bricks act more like a heat sink and absorb heat instead of insulating the chamber and keeping the heat in.
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That's good to know, thank you!!!
 
You're welcome! Look at local pottery/kiln stores for the soft bricks. Most stores have the hard fite bricks for lining wood stoves, which dont work as well.
 
Taz said:
You're welcome! Look at local pottery/kiln stores for the soft bricks. Most stores have the hard fite bricks for lining wood stoves, which dont work as well.
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Will do!!! I'm glad you mentioned that, because I didn't even know they had different kinds.
 
MyNameIsBo said:
I'm in kelso, just north of longview.
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Bo, I'll suggest looking into joining the NWBA (the Northwest Blacksmith Association, not the National Wheelchair Basketball Assn). at blacksmith.org. Our mentoring Center is at the Fairgrounds in Kelso and the spring conference this year is May30-Jun1. There's always folks selling equipment at the conference and you'll probably find what you need there.
They also have monthly events at the mentoring center iwth a demo in the am and open forge session in the pm. You just missed the Feb date (it was Saturday)
 
weo said:
Bo, I'll suggest looking into joining the NWBA (the Northwest Blacksmith Association, not the National Wheelchair Basketball Assn). at blacksmith.org. Our mentoring Center is at the Fairgrounds in Kelso and the spring conference this year is May30-Jun1. There's always folks selling equipment at the conference and you'll probably find what you need there.
They also have monthly events at the mentoring center iwth a demo in the am and open forge session in the pm. You just missed the Feb date (it was Saturday)
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That's awesome, that sounds like exactly the kind of thing I need to be doing! I'll definitely check it out. Thank you so much!
 
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Just wanted to give everyone an update. I was finally able to anneal one of my files last night! I built a little "cove" out of fire bricks that had an opening slit running the length of my file, and I bought a bernzomatic 8000 torch, and ran it up and down the length of the file until the whole thing glowed dull red. I kept it at that color for about a minute, then quickly sealed the knife in by placing two more fire bricks over the opening of the "cove" and let it sit overnight. This morning I did a little bit of grinding on it, and It was so much softer! I can't wait to see what kinda shape I can get this bad boy into after work today 😁 thank you so much to everyone for all the tips and advice!
 
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