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First, a little terminology: if you are softening the steel that is annealing. Normally, when we say "heat treating" we are talking about the process used to harden the steel.
I understand the desire to save money on materials, especially during the learning process, but collecting files from yard sales could very easily make your learning process harder if not impossible. The reason for that is that not all files are made of material that can make a good knife blade. Many files are just case hardened which means that after you shape it you cannot harden it again. If you have a piece of steel like this and don't know it you might be very discouraged that your heat treating process isn't working like the guys on YT say it should. We wouldn't want you to give up over something like that. For that reason, we usually suggest buying some good blade steel so that you know what you're dealing with when it comes time to heat treat your first blade. It really isn't all that expensive.
There are several useful Sticky Notes at the top of this forum directed at new knife makers that cover making that first blade. Looking them over might save you some grief.....
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