possible cracked blade

[J. Doyle]

Hi Ed and anyone else.

I made a drop point hunter today and quenched it. Everything went well and looked good. I cleaned it up just a bit and got it in the oven to temper. When I pulled it out, I etched it in ferric chloride just to see where the hardening line was at. I noticed what looked like a hairline crack running up near the plunge line. I sanded it out and re etched and now can't see it. Man it sure looked lick a crack to me and it went almost to the spine. I did everything just right as far as edge thickness and even grinds and I took it to 400 grit prior to HT. My plunges were nice and even and rounded out.

I put the knife in the vice just below the crack and flexed it quite a bit. I heard no cracking sound and the crack didn't reappear. I didn't flex it all out because it had only one temper so far.

My question is this: Is there a sure way to tell if it's a crack before I just destroy the blade? It's supposed to go to a customer and I do not want to send out a cracked blade but like I said, I can't seem to see it now even after etching again. Still makes me nervous though. Also, if it was cracked and almost to the spine, wouldn't it have snapped pretty easy in the vice?

The steel is 1080 quenched in warm mineral oil by the way. This is potentially my first cracked blade. Any ideas?