In this part of the tutorial we continue working on the rondel by finishing thehandle and hardening/tempering the steel.

Part 1` of this tutorial is here

We want all to be very sturdy and straight when we drill it so take care when drill through all three pieces and don't drill them separately. First put the rondel into one of the handle halves and drill right through both pieces for both pin holes.

Now flip those two drilled pieces over and put the undrilled piece underneath. Then drill right through the whole assembly.

Now pin it with some temporary wooden pins. This is just so we can work on it.

Now shape it to the handle shape you want. You can use a rasp or a belt sander.

Once it is shaped the way you want it we can harden and temper the rondel then put it all together.

Treating the steel

There are two parts to this process. First we Harden the steel then we temper it. This makes it suitable for use as a rondel. It can take use and be strong yet still have some flexibility.

Heat the spike to red hot. This is the hardening of it. No need to do the whole rondel. Just the first few inches from the point on down. And do it slowly. The point can overheat to yellow very quickly so work yourself to the point, avoiding it a lot. Watch for the color changes.

Once you get a good portion of it to red hot quench it in oil.

The next stage, (tempering) is where we soften it up a bit so it is not so brittle. We do this by only heating it a little bit. And we can tell it is the right temperature when the color of the steel turns to wheat color. So, clean off the metal with emory paper so we can observe the color change as we heat it.

Heat it gently and slowly from a few inches until it turns a wheat color like this. You have heat it too much when it starts to turn plum color. You can see just a little bit of plum in this but it is ok. Go ahead and immediately quench it.

Let's continue with the tutorial

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