I’m just an amateur guy who messed with metal on occasion
And straight up not following the logic
I know heating and quenching makes it harder, which is good for knives and such, but also makes it more brittle I guess? And likely to crack?
The descriptions on this subject are literally “over explaining the scientific molecular composition of metal” or “so anyway make hot then make un hot, dat good”
But I was trying to bend some metal today, heated it up a few times and got it near its shape, then cooled it by quenching so no one would grab it and burn their hands on it while I stepped away, came back and heated again and it just broke lol
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When metal cools down slowly it forms long unbroken grains, which can bend easily. The slow cooling allows the crystals in the metal to grow in a consistent, orderly pattern that is soft and flexible. This is great for something like a spring, but would lead to a knife that dulls quickly.
When a metal cools quickly it forms tons of tiny interlocking grains that don’t bend easily. The sudden shock of cooling causes the metal to start crystallizing everywhere at once, and these crystals meet up in harsh boundaries and lock together. This makes the metal hard and it will hold an edge well, but it will snap before it bends much. When you try to bend it, these harsh boundaries between grains will split apart.
So depending on what you’re making you will want different grain sizes. So heating and cooling it uncontrollably can mess that up. You can make a spring too brittle by heating it up then cooling it down quickly, or you can soften hardened steel by heating it up and letting it cool down slowly.
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