[Nate Simberg]

Hello all!

I'm working on some blade projects, but I don't have the ability to temper and harden them myself. Are there any companies or smiths that I could ship the blades to and have them do it? I'm in Maine, if that helps, but I'm willing to ship quite a distance.

Alternatively, are there any suppliers of blade steels that offer pre-tempered steels?

Thanks!

Nate

[Justin King]

There are commercial heat treaters that offer this type of service but their pricing is usually geared towards doing batches of blades, having one or two blades done at a time may not be the most economical.
You are more likely to get good answers/suggestions if you give more specific info about the blades you want heat treated, specifically the size and steel type.

[Eric W. Norenberg]

What kind of results are you hoping for? If you are at or approaching professional skills and finishes but can't do your own HT then finding a pro service in your area would be a good option, and probably not too hard to find, given the shipbuilding industries that (I hope) still exist in the North East. If batch prices are too good to pass up, then you may be able to have them do some nearly finished blades along with some blanks, although the results might not be optimal I'd guess (same "cook" time for pieces of differing thickness and overall mass might not be the best scenario). You'll need to be able to tell them exactly what kind of steel you are sending them. I don't know of any suppliers that can sell you stuff already heat treated and tempered, you might contact the New Jersey Steel Baron on that one:
http://newjerseysteelbaron.com/contact-us/ - pretty sure he doesn't offer HT services but he might be able to help you source pretreated stock. Just remember that shaping stock or blanks that are already hardened and tempered is very different from working the same material while dead soft!

If you are still at the hobbyist level, try to find a local blacksmith or craft organization.. Maybe start here :
http://www.newenglandschoolofmetalwork.com/index.php
or start calling living history museums in your area. You can probably find someone who can fire and dunk one or two blades for you now and then pretty reasonably, maybe not with the same precise results as an industrial service but that might not matter to you at this point. You'll certainly learn a bit, if you are still in the early stages of the craft, watching it done the old school way!