Work your blade back and forth in the forge and even turn the edge top to bottom to heat evenly from both sides. I would also recommend that you try to spot decalesence which will give visual evidence that the steel has changed phases. Building a little larger forge can help in not having the flame blow directly on the blade.
Didn't see your pictures of the grain until I posted the last paragraph. The ends of the steel are a little out of focus so it's not easy to see the grain but from what I can see the grain looks large to me. If you want to make a standard to go by and have a old file that you can do without break it. That will give you a real good comparison to go by.
Doug
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Last edited by Doug Lester; 04-14-2019 at 02:22 PM.
Reason: update reply
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