I need to heat treat a small folder blade. It is 5"x1"x1/8". I can send this off, but it seems like overkill. I know I can also build a one brick forge but have yet to find good plans. Can Damascus be hand heat treated using a torch? My blade blank is annealed and after reading, it appears all I need to do is heat the entire blade to non-magnetic. once it is non-magnetic, i can quench and then temer in the oven. Would this work for damascus or are there additional concerns? How do you test the magnetism? Do you attach a tiny magnet to the blade and heat until it falls off or do you heat until its red and then move it against a magnet? I am worried about overheating.

Let me know how you would go about heating a little blade like this.

What type of damascus ?Carbon , stainless , what alloys is it made from.Don't leave the magnet on the blade . When it looks about the right color just touch the magnet to the blade .The Curie temperature ,where steel loses magnetism is 1414F.

Blade is 1095, 15N20 & Ni. Its coming out really nice and is Chris Marks Damascus. For this one, im thinking I should send it out because i am not that confident, unless you guys can convince me that this is easy. Chris suggested bringing it to 1550 degrees and hold for 15 minutes, then quench in transmission fluid, then draw back blade at 350-425.....That is a bit over my head and seems more difficult than "Heat till entire cutting edge is non-magnetic, quench edge first, then temper in 400degree oven".....