eased off by slight heating
without materially lessening the hardness of the piece. One way
to do this is to hold the piece over a fire and test it with a
moistened finger. Another way is to dip the piece in boiling water
after it has first been quenched in a cold bath. Such steps are
not necessary with articles which will afterward be tempered and
in which the strains are thus reduced.

In annealing steels the operation is similar to hardening, as far
as heating is concerned. The critical temperatures are the proper
ones for annealing as well as hardening. From this point on there
is a difference, for annealing consists in cooling as slowly as
possible. The slower the cooling the softer will be the steel.

Annealing may be done in the open air, in furnaces, in hot ashes
or lime, in powdered charcoal, in burnt bone, in charred leather
and in water. Open-air annealing will do as a crude measure in
cases where it is desired to take the internal stresses out of
a piece. Care must be taken in using this method that the piece
is not exposed to drafts or placed on some cold substance that
will chill it. Furnace annealing is much better and consists in
heating the piece in a furnace to the critical temperature and
then allowing the work and the furnace to cool together.

When lime or ashes are used as materials to keep air away from
the steel and retain the heat, they should be first heated to make
sure that they are dry. Powdered charcoal is used for high-grade
annealing, the piece being packed in this substance in an iron box
and both the work and the box raised to the critical temperature
and then allowed to cool slowly. Machinery steel may be annealed in
spent ground-bone that has been used in casehardening; _but tool
steel must never be annealed in this way_, as it will be injured
by the phosphorus contained in the bone. Charred leather is the
best annealing material for high-carbon steel, because it prevents
decarbonizing taking place.

DOUBLE ANNEALING

Water annealing consists in heating the piece, allowing it to cool
in air until it loses its red heat and becomes black and then
immediately quenching it in water. This plan works well for very
low-carbon steel; but for high-carbon steel what is known as the
"double annealing treatment" must be given, provided results are
wanted quickly. The process consists in heating the steel quickly to
200 deg. or more above the upper critical, cooling in air down through
the