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I don't think there is much doubt that the blade is 'hard enough', the question is what has made it hard? There are several different crystalline structures that the steel will take on depending on how the heat is applied. While several of them are 'hard' some of them are not 'tough' - in other words, the blade can be quite brittle. Some are tough but not as hard as it could be. While I agree that a blade is not the right tool for prying that is only one example of how people will use a knife when they have no other convenient choice. Like I said, the difference in what you did and what you could have done is not huge but the result can be.
Skip the bricks and make a real forge. Small is OK but a real forge is easy to build and can be cheap and it will make your heat treating much easier and more reliable...
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