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Why does nobody talk about reading the coal fire instead of the steel color
When I started forging about 6 years back, I lived and died by the magnet test and watching the steel change color. If it was non-magnetic and orange, I quenched it, simple as that. Then a guy named Dale who runs a small forge up in Duluth showed me how he reads the fire itself, not just the metal. He pointed out that a clean, bright yellow fire with just a touch of orange at the edges means you are right where you need to be, while a dull red fire with black spots means you are burning your coal wrong and losing heat. I tried it on a batch of 6 bottle openers last month and every single one came out with a nicer grain structure than anything I got from the magnet trick. The fire tells you if your air is too high, if your coal is coked right, all of it, before the steel ever gives you a sign. Now I spend more time watching the color of the flames than the color of the metal, and my quench lines have gotten way cleaner. Has anyone else made that switch, or do you still trust the magnet more than your own eyes on the fire?
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