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Bronze sounds really good. Cool. Pix when done, don't just keep us all on edge.... ;)

One other thing I could be curious about is your tempering temperature (the post hardening stress relieving aspect), that might lower the final hardness. But, if it skates a file, it's probably hard...

Four minutes is not too long for this steel, not at that controlled temperature. Microchips sound like the steel is fracturing and that would be typical for a through-hardening steel like this one. ...