reducing the hardness of only the shank of a razor -- possible?

I like jimps. I know, I know, I can put alum on my fingers, and I always do, but I still miss jimps when I don't have them. On some razors (like a badly pitted old Lafayette 5/8" I restored) the tang is soft enough I can cut jimps in. On others it just isn't.

Obviously I wouldn't add jimping to any magnificent historical razors, not that I have any of those. But for example I have several no-name razors, clearly of German or American manufacture, and I sometimes think about adding jimps to those.

So I have been thinking of trying the following thing:

• Get a big tub of ice water and suspend the razor in it so that only the shank is exposed to air
• quickly heat the tang with a hot torch, swirling the ice water to make sure the blade stays cold
• remove the torch when the shank turns red hot
• let the shank cool off
• cut my jimps and go on my merry way

I know a lot of forum members have a lot of experience with heat treatment -- does the process described above look like it might work?

Yes that will work. You can skip the ice and swirling. You only need to keep the edge below 400F, so even if the water is boiling you would be fine.

Check started threads by "Spazola" Charlie, in his info file. He has used various methods and , I believe had a thread on straightening blades.
Annealing is the key word for the process.
~Richard