Ran thermal cycles from 1650°-1350 in 100° increments with a cool to black in between for grain refinement and to dissolve the carbides in the 52100 from Aldo which comes in a spheroidized state. That allows hardenability and gives me a fine grain size. The thermal cycles are done with the blades wrapped in stainless foil to prevent excessive scaling. I do that stage after profiling. This also anneals the steel even more and makes it easier to work with. I also run a test coupon during thermal cycles to test hardenability and grain size afterwards to verify the results. In this case the test coupon was a template for the Model #2 which out of the quench tested at 64-65RC. A first temper at 375° for 1:45 gave 62-61 RC, and a second temper at 400° gave me a final hardness of 60-61RC. For the Model #2, I'm happy with that result in that size of blade. I may raise the temper temperatures in these larger blades during the temper and drop a point of hardness. With Buoy, Jr. and the Bull now thermal cycled, they were center scribed top and bottom and marked with Redmeadow on the presentation side. The swedge on the Bull was laid in on the grinder and finished by hand, that portion won't see the belt after it's hardened like the rest of the blade will so it's important to get the swedges as close to centered and finished as possible. The swedge on the Bowie is next and then it's main bevel put on. The Jr. will have a very this distal taper and no swedge unless it tells me it needs one afterwards, but I think a clean tapered blade is called for there.
That is an example of Tl:dr
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