I have made some good looking pritchels and faruls, but cannot get the heat treat right on them. One hit and they are trash.

What material do you use and how do you heat treat them, even if you are just tuning them up?

We generally use either H13 or S7 tool steel. S7 is my preference, as it is more forgiving in the heat treating process for a small shop. To heat treat it, we begin by annealing the tool by heating it to around 1700 degrees and placing it in lime to cool slowly. Once it is cool, I heat just the working tip to 1700 and quench it in automatic transmission oil to harden it. Then I heat the tip to around 500 degrees to temper it. Let it air cool, and you should have a good tool. You can look up the specs for just about any tool steel if you contact a steel manufacturer and ask for the info.

Thanks for responding

Do you do all of this after you have heated the steel up and forge it to shape and the grind it to a final shape, then do all the heat treating? Then polish finish?

I did make a creaser out of oil drill rod, but when I went to weld the handle on it cracked. I believe due to not tempering it first. What do you think?

I hope to get out to your school some day, but with working full time shoeing almost full time, trying to get my AFA CF and the honey-do list, coming out to your school has not made it into my Honey's date book yet. I'll let you know.

The process for welded handled tools is as follows:

Make the rough tool.
Tack weld handle to the tool.
Heat both tool and handle in the forge to around 1500 degrees.
Once hot, completely weld the tool to the handle.
Take back to forge after welding and heat the entire piece.
Anneal by heating and placing in lime until cool.
Once annealed, grind and polish to finished shape.
Harden.
Temper.
Use.

Hope this helps.