Originally Posted by
IanW
Paul, if my experience is any guide, you are more likely to hit a few hard spots than encounter any softening. I guess you get a bit of local heating of dags of metal to conversion temp., and the cooling of the thin plate is sufficiently rapid to keep the carbides in solution. I always file the cut edge until I get a nice even drag all the way along. I find similar hard spots on some of the new plate I've used, which I put down to a bit of local work-hardening from the guillotine.
Been thinking of getting a set of those hardness-testing files. McJing has a set for $35 - doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence at that price, but everything I've bought from there has been capable of doing the job, so far, so maybe they are ok for what I need. Anyone who has tried them & has any comments??
Cheers,