did I mess up??

Ok so I am making a knife for my brother that is graduating basic. It is 1/4 5160. I have hted it and tempered it and cleaned it up ready for cerakote. Well now is my dilemma. The process to Cerakote the knife calls for a time in the oven of 250 for 1 hr to get out oils and then a time in the oven of 250 for 2 hrs to dry it. is this going to completely screw up my ht? Is this going to temper it even further to the point it is no longer usable? Has anyone used this stuff before? should I have skipped the temper process and used these times as the temper? Any Advice is welcome.

You have no worries.

The only way to mess up your temper is to EXCEED that temperature. Feel free to cook it as long as you want at 250 without harm.

-Josh

I do not do my own HT or pretend to know all that much about it so take thoughts with a grain of salt, but from what I have read I believe that you would have to heat the knife to a higher temperature to temper the blade more than it already is. Hope this helps

Nahhh. 1/4" 5160 is not a simple HT so it may well be screwed up - but your 250F cycles won't harm it a bit. :biggrin: