Annealing, Quenching, Tempering Thermal treatment is the controlled heating and cooling processes used to alter the steel’s microstructure, improving its hardness, toughness, and wear resistance. This includes three mains stages—softening the steel to relieve internal stresses, heating and rapidly cooling the blade to increase hardness and finally tempering to reduce brittleness while maintaining strength. These processes are crucial in order to achieve a balance between sharpness, durability, a