Capt. Chris--
I think that the temper of most steels would not be affected by the 212 degrees of boiling water--even though I don't use boiling water to clean a knife. Boiling water is much too hot for me to handle when cleaning a knife, and the blade doesn't need to be that hot in order to help evaporate water off its surface. From what little I have heard of the heat treating process, most tempering is done at temperatures higher than 212 degrees, and the temper is not likely to be affected unless the blade is heated beyond the original temper point.
This reminds me of the movies where they stick a large knife into a fire to get it cherry red in order to cauterize the wound of somebody who has been shot. Not only would that put the poor guy through a lot more misery--it would ruin the edge holding ability of what might have been a properly heat treated knife.
Larry
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Larry W. Williams
RKCC #CM-041
ABKA #046
RKS #1246