Annealing small parts with 2 brick forge

[Atlas Knife Company]

I'm working on my mini for the KITH. It's a 1" long, 1/4" tall and 1/32" thick blade made of 1080/15n20 damascus.

I need help getting the blade annealed after forging it in my 2 brick forge. Surely it can be done. I heated and normalized for 5 minutes then quickly packed in 2" 6lb. inswool and it was room temp about 30 minutes later. I know it needs a much slower cool down than this. Should I heat a couple 1" x 6" bars and place in with it?

When I tried to bend it(one the tang), it bent at one point and almost seemed brittle. Not like a coat hanger where the whole piece would curve, but very quickly deforming at one spot and staying deformed. I think this is neither annealed nor hardened. What would you call this state of the metal?

I'm still beginning at forging, but I think the forging itself turned out very nice. I was able to draw the stock out from 1/4" square to about 1/16" square and have a nice, distally tapered blade with pretty even bevels.

 

[Barry Clodfelter]

I use a metal bucket filled with vermiculite. It takes about 12 hours before you can pick them up without gloves on.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

You are probably air hardening it to some degree
Also, if you have been beating and forging this small piece of steel a lot, the structure and carbon content can be very different from the starter metals.

I would cycle it a couple times, taking it just above non-magnetic and letting it air cool until black.
Then bring it just above non-magnetic and quench it.
Finally, do a sub-critical anneal ( below magnetic) and you should have the piece should be ready to work.
It will make the blade ready for the final HT,too.

As you have discovered, objects with small mass and thin section loose heat fast. Placing a larger mass of steel on both sides will help a lot.

 

[Atlas Knife Company]

Stacy, I hadn't been quenching it, but I was normalizing thrice before trying to anneal it. I'll add the extra metal bars for the next one. I'll also get a bag of vermiculite instead of the inswool.

Thanks.