Originally Posted by
PapaBull
If you can touch it without burning a blister on your finger, the temper should be unaffected. Until the temperature tops 300 degrees, the crystaline structure of the steel does not change. Tempering steel is actually the process of bringing down the initial hardness to a usable level. Here is more information. Suffice to say that unless you really went nuts on your razor, the poor shaving properties you are experiencing are probably the result of inadequate honing. Working a blade over thoroughly usually blunts the edge significantly and I've found it all too easy to quit honing before the blade is actually sharpened completely.
Here's more on heat treatment, tempering and annealing:
To harden most steel it is heated to a medium red or slightly above the point where it becomes non-magnetic. It is then quenched in water, oil or air depending on the type of steel. The steel is now at its maximum hardness but is very brittle. To reduce the brittleness the metal is tempered by heating it to some where between 350°F and 1350°F. This reduced the hardness a little and the brittelness a lot. Most steels need to be tempered at about 450°F for maximum usable hardness but every steel is slightly different.
To soften steel so that it can be cold worked and machined is called annealing. To anneal steel is is heated to slightly above the hardening temperature and then cooled as slow as possible. Cooling is done in an insulating medium such as dry powdered lime or in vermiculite. High carbon and many alloy steels can only be cooled slow enough in a temperatue controlled furnace since the cooling rate must be only 20 degrees F per hour for several hours.