Mike Connor wrote:

[snip of extremely interesting discussion of homemade hooks]

For tempering, one needs a small steel plate. First the hooks are hardened,
by heating to cherry red, and dropping into ice water. The hooks are then
placed in a container of sand, and shaken until bright. The metal plate is
heated, the hooks placed on the plate, and carefully watched for the temper
colour changes. The colour changes of the steel are caused by oxidation on
the metal surface, and are extremely temperature specific. When the
required temperature is achieved, the hooks are tipped off the plate
immediately into ice water.

If the temper is OK, then that was that. If not, simply repeat until the
temper is OK. Once the temper is OK, then once again shake the hooks in
sand ( Carborundum grit, etc etc) to clean off any scale etc.

The temper colours vary somewhat depending on the steel used. High carbon
steel is required. The stuff used for pins and needles is perfect. Some
wires may not be.

What basic colors are you looking for with hooks? I know among the
woodworking community there is quite a bit of discussion (argument,
really) about which types of tool steel are best for plane irons and
such, and how they should be tempered. In woodworking edge-tools, we
are looking for the balance between hardness and brittleness, and
depending on the type of steel and the application, you might aim for a
brown yellow (plane iron) to a blue (sawblade or scraper).

So what have you found to be the optimal range for hooks?


Chuck Vance