Heat Treating Wedges?

Yes. First heat treat the tool steel, then machine the wedges using carbide tooling. That's what a pro machinist told me back when I was making some wedges. Or else case-harden them after machining. - GWE
Ed Bailen wrote:

Alternatively. If you have an oven in the kitchen. that will give you the temperatures and temperature control you need for the annealing stage. Use the torch for the initial hardening, Quench, wipe the oil off (to avoid divorce) then immediately transfer to the oven which has been pre-heated to the right temperature.
Mark Rand RTFM

The problem, Mark, is that when you heat it so the top is hot enough, the tips will be too hot, and vise versa. It's a thermodynamic thing. Unless you know some technique for heating the top just right so the heat flows to the tip and the whole thing gets hotter evenly, it would be tough. And even if you did, the effect of the quench would be much more pronounced on the tips. That's what I meant. - GWE

On Sun, 12 Sep 2004 21:42:47 -0500, Ed Bailen vaguely proposed a theory ......and in reply I say!:
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Not sure what your situation is, but PMFJI. You may know more than I about how the wedges will work, or know your situation. I have used wedges rather than pullers to remove bearings. Be very careful. A puller places strain on the bearing and the end of the shaft, which are both meant to take it, and the net force on the whole system is zero. Pushing with a wedge can hurt stuff down the line on the shaft. It also places strain on the shaft _inside_ stuff down the line, if it is stuck to the shaft in any way. With a really tough bearing, you could damage, for instance, an electric motor winding or a housing.
DAMHIKT
***************************************************** I know I am wrong about just about everything. So I am not going to listen when I am told I am wrong about the things I know I am right about.

Surround the metal with firebricks and apply the flame to the thicker end of the piece. It's hard to overheat steel with propane. When it is bright red, whip it out and drop it into the oil. As long as the thickest parts are quenched fast enough, it won't matter about the thinner parts. The important thing is, when you've cleaned it off and put it in SWMBO's oven, that the tempering will be to the correct temperature because that is set by the oven thermostat. Thus the thin parts will not be annealed and the thick parts will not be left hard enough to crack.
Mark Rand RTFM

You can case harden mild steel with a torch and Kasenit. This will produce a surface hard enough that a file won't touch it. I think I recall reading that it's about Rc58 to 60. See