Seems kind of odd that one might recieve product without some sort of bill of materials that would garauntee sound forging material (crack free and correct chemistry). From the .jpg pitures, looks like there are river lines that initiated internally. I wonder if the chemistry is out from the...
Do you mean "tempered" or "heat treated" ? Tempering is done to relieve internal material stress that develope during quenching, after heat treatment. Usually, tempering is done at a low enough temperature so that no phase changes occur. The ASM handbook is a great resource for cooling curves...
